Activity monitoring system for elderly in a context of smart home

The Homecare project which is part of a research project funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR), aims to define and experiment a new multi-sensor monitoring system for the elderly with cognitive disabilities in a care unit. The main objective of this project is to follow activities of patients in their living environment. The system consists in a motion sensors network deployed on different areas of the care unit and in an electronic patch worn by the subject to identify him and detect falls. In order to locate tagged subjects inside the care unit we use a network of anchor points. From these positions and movement data, an analysis algorithm detects an abnormal situation and alerts the nursing staff in real time. A web application allows the medical staff to access movements and alarms. The complete monitoring system is functional for several months and monitor continuously two patients 24/24. The first results are encouraging. Seven out of eight falls were detected with one false alarm every week. Finally, activities monitoring allowed medical staff to tailor a treatment for one subject followed. In this paper, we present the system architecture, the technologies used, and some results.