Intelligent System To Assist The Elderly

Final year B.Tech(I.T) students R. Shanmuga Priya (left) and S. Savvithri demonstrating the intelligent system for assisted living for the aged. For the working lot, taking care of the aged has become a difficult task. With the breakdown of the nuclear family and want of reliable domestic help, the problem gets compounded. With many working abroad or staying away from parents, most elders are forced to live alone fearing an unexpected fall or a heart attack.

There is now a ray of light for such people as two final year B. Tech. Information Technology students of Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology, have come up with a system that can help put their fears to rest. S. Savvithri and R. Shanmuga Priya have devised an intelligent system for assisted living using wireless sensor networks for the aged who live without assistance. The system is expected to be of great use to those with neuromuscular or cognitive diseases who are likely to fall more frequently or experience a heart problem. It consists of three main functional modules called the user badge module, the receiver module and the system module.

The user badge has a fall detecting sensor, hear beat monitor, microphone and an emergency button. The user badge is a surface mountable device that is fixed to the body of the senior citizen who lives alone. The receiver module is a static mode with a telephone interface and is installed in the room where the person stays most of the time. The interface, when enabled due to a fall or rise in the pulse, automatically dials the number of a caretaker, a relative or a nearby hospital, that is embedded in it.

The system module is the computer that is kept at a central place that validates the events from the user badge. A camera that is fixed in the room of the occupant too gets activated when there is a fall. If the user is conscious after the fall, he can press the emergency button himself to enable the telephone interface and talk directly to the caretaker. Even if the person does not fall, the heart beat is automatically evaluated and in case assistance is needed, the caretaker is informed.

“The system can be used in hospitals, senior citizens’ homes, prisons and asylums, using a common server to monitor the movements of its inhabitants. But, basically we have designed this to enable the elderly who want to live independently. We hope the system will help them live in privacy and with dignity, yet be assured of help when in need,” says Shanmuga Priya. The duo has developed this as a final project of their engineering course. “It took us almost four months to develop this.

When commercially manufactured, the user badge will cost approximately Rs. 500. This will be very affordable considering the amount that has to be paid to a full-time caretaker,” says Savvithri. They are determined to take up the manufacturing themselves after two years when they are extra equipped with qualification and finance. They consider this a small step in health care monitoring and are keen to file a patent for the same.

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