title: A welfare facility resident care support system.
abstract: We have developed a new care support system to monitor the overall health of welfare facility residents who need constant care. The system is designed with wireless sensors, wireless repeaters and a host computer. The wireless sensor, which consists of a piezoelectric sensor, a 2 axis accelerometer, a microcontroller and a low power 303 MHz ASH transceiver. It records respiration, activity and indicators of posture and behavior for 24 hours. These data are transmitted to the wireless repeater by the transceiver. The wireless repeaters, which are installed throughout the welfare facility, send data, including the repeater's ID, to the host computer. The ID is used to detect the resident's location in the welfare facility. The host computer stores the data, which can be used to analyze the resident's overall health condition. When the resident is in an emergency situation, such as falling or in an inactive state for more that the allotted time, the host computer automatically alerts the situation to the care staff by an alarm sound and also by mobile phone.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Engineering, International Trinity College, Hiroshima 730-0014, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiromichi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Maki
authors.forename: Yoshiharu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yonczawa
authors.forename: Hidekuni
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ogawa
authors.forename: Haruhiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Allen W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Hahn
authors.forename: W Morton
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Caldwell
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007564:Japan; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D010346:Patient Care Management / Q000379:methods*; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology; D012112:Residential Facilities / Q000379:methods*; D012946:Social Welfare; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D013686:Telemetry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D014584:User-Computer Interface