Title:	AN ASSISTED LIVING SYSTEM FOR THE ELDERLY - FEARLESS CONCEPT
Author(s):	R-D. Berndt, M. C. Takenga, S. Kuehn, P. Preik, S. Berndt, M. Brandstoetter, R. Planinc, M. Kampel
ISBN:	978-972-8939-70-0
Editors:	Mário Macedo
Year:	2012
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Assisted living, fall detection, fire detection, smoke detection, smart home, telematics platform
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	131
Last Page:	138
Language:	English
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Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	Elderly usually have fears arising from themselves and their home environment. About 50 percent of the elderly suffer from fear of falling. A number of them suffer from fear of cooking as they can cause fire, fear of using water as they can cause flooding and so on. These fears in general yield in a low self-efficacy causing less activity. This paper presents the FEARLESS (fear elimination as resolution for loosing elderly’s substantial sorrows) system that will help enhance the participation of elderly in social life and their mobility at home. Robust detection algorithms for falls, smoke and fire based on fusion of audio and image processing approaches, enable the emergency services and relatives to get automatically alerted in case of urgency. The system applies passive sensors for it to remain effective even in case of inability of pressing an alarm button and not to impair the mobility of the user as the wearable sensors do. The system able to detect automatically falls, fire, smoke and unusual behavior in the elderly environments will be developed. This system is conceived for a global deployment. The implementation of such a complex system will be enabled thanks to the features of the robust telematics platform. Moreover, the strategy for the fast adoption of the product by the market which consists of integrating an important part of the supply chain will be described. The proposed system will improve the feeling of safety for the elderly, thus reducing their fears. As a result, elderly will participate actively in the self-serve society which directly will influence their wellbeing.
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