title: Hands-On Experiences in Deploying Cost-Effective Ambient-Assisted Living Systems.
abstract: Older adults' preferences to remain independent in their own homes along with the high costs of nursing home care have motivated the development of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies which aim at improving the safety, health conditions and wellness of the elderly. This paper reports hands-on experiences in designing, implementing and operating UbiCare, an AAL based prototype system for elderly home care monitoring. The monitoring is based on the recording of environmental parameters like temperature and light intensity as well as micro-level incidents which allows one to infer daily activities like moving, sitting, sleeping, usage of electrical appliances and plumbing components. The prototype is built upon inexpensive, off-the-shelf hardware (e.g., various sensors, Arduino microcontrollers, ZigBee-compatible wireless communication modules) and license-free software, thereby ensuring low system deployment costs. The network comprises nodes placed in a house's main rooms or mounted on furniture, one wearable node, one actuator node and a centralized processing element (coordinator). Upon detecting significant deviations from the ordinary activity patterns of individuals and/or sudden falls, the system issues automated alarms which may be forwarded to authorized caregivers via a variety of communication channels. Furthermore, measured environmental parameters and activity incidents may be monitored through standard web interfaces.
authors.affiliation: School of Science and Technology, Hellenic Open University, Patras GR-26335, Greece. thand79@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Athanasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dasios
authors.affiliation: School of Science and Technology, Hellenic Open University, Patras GR-26335, Greece. dgavalas@aegean.gr.|Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, University of the Aegean, Mytilene GR-81100, Greece. dgavalas@aegean.gr.
authors.forename: Damianos
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gavalas
authors.affiliation: Department of Informatics, Technological Educational Institution of Athens, Athens GR-12243, Greece. pantziou@teiath.gr.
authors.forename: Grammati
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pantziou
authors.affiliation: Department of Informatics, University of Piraeus, Piraeus GR-18534, Greece. konstant@unipi.gr.
authors.forename: Charalampos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Konstantopoulos
mesh_terms: D040561:Assisted Living Facilities / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D008490:Medical Informatics; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D057233:Radio Frequency Identification Device; D059015:Wireless Technology
keywords: Arduino; XBee; ZigBee; ambient assisted living; elderly; monitoring; smart home; wireless sensor network