PRE2016 3 Groep10

Advanced Elderly Emergency System (A.E.E.S.)

This is the wiki page of group 10 of the USE course: Project Robots Everywhere at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Here we will thoroughly describe all aspects of our project, in which we design a wearable fall-detecting device for elderly people.

Design team

We have a diverse team of 6 people from different majors of the TU/e:

Name	Student ID	Department
Lennard Buijs	0959903	Mechanical Engineering
Bram Grooten	0885158	Applied Mathematics
Ken Hommen	0911594	Industrial Engineering
Pieter van Loon	0861532	Software Science
Steef Reijntjes	0944701	Electrical Engineering
Man-Hing Wong	0944285	Electrical Engineering

Problem statement

Problem

In the Netherlands we have more and more elderly people. For them it can be more difficult to balance themselves when standing or walking, so it regularly happens that they fall. When they do, they often have trouble standing up. Also, they have a higher chance of injuries, with hip fractures being the most common. The problem especially arises if these elderly are severely injured by a fall, and therefore can't get up to reach for help.

Solution

A device that should be worn by, mostly, elderly that detects when one has fallen. It can automatically send a warning to ‘ICE’-persons or even call 112. Automatically sending its location along with it. A microphone and camera can in this case be used to observe the situation even faster. By connecting the device to the internet, this all can be made possible even faster. Also the device can ‘ask’ questions to the owner in case of emergency, which can be answered by simply talking back.

Objectives

To effectively and successfully end this project, a list of objectives is created to ensure weekly improvements, which will help in obtaining a final product. List of objectives:

• Research state-of-the-art technology
• Establish list of requirements
• Design the system that follows every requirement, this would be our ideal deliverable
• Create a final presentation, explaining our design

Approach

Requirements

• Wearable
  • Belt clip
  • Wrist band
  • Necklace
• Speech recognition
• Speak to the user
• GPS to track location
• Internet and phone connections
  • Call emergency services
  • Contact next of kin
  • Share location with next of kin
• Sensors to detect falling:
  • accelerometer
  • barometer
  • gyroscope
• Air quality measuring sensor
• Button to manually trigger emergency state

Research

State of the art

Medical Alert Systems

Currently there a few different wearable emergency devices for elderly. All of them have slightly different functions. Firstly, there is the Medical Guardian. The Medical Guardian is considered the best medical alert system available. The Medical Guardian (Premium) is a medical alert system that can be worn as an arm wrist, belt or necklace and has the following features:

• Fall detection that will call for help when the patient has fallen
• A button that will call for help and contacts you with an employee of Medical Guardian
• GPS-tracking
• Heat-sensor in case of fire

Fall detection

The fall detection is most important to this research, since it is one of the main features of the Advanced Elderly Emergency System. Currently, most fall detection systems utilise accelerometers and gyroscopes. With these sensors the movement of the patient can be measured. A sudden change of direction can then be also be measured and calculated. This is further explained in chapter " ".

Most sensors have a certain waiting time before calling for help, because it checks for movement after a possible fall. If the patient moves, the system will not call for help. When an AI is added to the system, this waiting time can be reduced a lot, because the AI can ask the patient whether he or she has fallen.

Speech recognition

Speech recognition is another important feature of the Advanced Elderly Emergency System. There are many applications for speech recognition. A very wellknown software is Siri. Siri is able to recognise one's voice and hear what the person is asking.

Existing devices

• ZEMBRO

“Zembro bracelet is the first intelligent bracelet specially designed for the elderly. It looks good. And better yet: it’s good company. It offers you the freedom, independence and peace of mind that is so crucially important.”

An elegant bracelet, it features smart functions and is connected to an app. Zembro personal alarm keeps you in touch with each other. At any time. Including those moments when it is so crucially important. And that gives everyone peace of mind. Because you’re always nearby. Even when you’re not in the neighbourhood. The Zembro bracelet makes the connection with your family or friends even stronger. And isn’t that the most beautiful gift that you could possibly give someone?

• LIMMEX

Limmex in general:

The watch is always within reach. It works outdoors just as reliably as it does at home. Simply press one button and the Limmex Emergency Watch will set up a telephone call for you. Thanks to the built-in loudspeaker and microphone you can directly speak to your person(s) selected. You define which telephone numbers should be called. In an emergency situation every minute counts. Communicating with people in an emergency can be fraught with problems and cost valuable time and delay from the rescue services. All models come with an integrated high performance GPS-module (A-GPS). Thanks to the GPS-function the Limmex wearers can quickly pinpoint their location via satellite when they are outside of a building.

The Limmex Watch also sends an SMS to the person called after the alarm has been raised. The SMS contains a link to a map indicating the location of the watch at the time of the emergency call. You can also email the map link to anybody you wish. Your watch will only be located after an emergency call has been made. This means that the Limmex Watch battery lasts longer and that you decide when you want it to be located. If there is no GPS signal reception (e.g. inside buildings), GSM tracking is used over the mobile phone network.

Limmex for elderly:

Most elderly persons would like to live for as long as possible in their own home. A great number of them still have good health but nevertheless realize that the risk of falling, feeling unwell, dizziness or suffering from other health problems increases substantially with age. Many of them would like to own a device which offers them security without limiting their individual lifestyles.

Traditional domestic emergency call systems only partially fulfill the requirements of this target group. Monitoring is only guaranteed inside the home – this is in spite of the fact that many older people remain mobile well into old age. In addition, traditional emergency call systems are complicated to operate because of their costly installation and their great number of technical alarms – and their design is unsatisfactory. With Limmex it is possible to solve most of these problems: the product offers security also outside the home, it is technically considerably easier than current solutions and due to the convincing watch collection it meets even high demands on design and aesthetics.

• MEDICAL GUARDIAN

Get Help in 3 Simple Steps

Step 1

Press the button on your Medical Guardian Pendant. The small pendant can be attached to a belt, worn around the neck, or around the wrist. While you are home, the device should be worn at all times. Because it is 100% waterproof, the pendant can be worn in the shower or bath. When pressed, the device sends a wireless signal to the device's base station, in your home. This base station alerts the monitoring centre of an emergency.

Step 2

Communicate with a certified medical operator. Within moments of pressing the button on your Medical Guardian you will be contacted, via a two-way radio in the device, to a certified and trained emergency responder. The operator will assess your situation and help you determine what type of help you need. Able to access your file, the responder can view your medical profile, medications, preferred doctors, local hospital, and contact information for friends and family members. This means you don’t have to worry about an ambulance being sent to your home anytime you use the Medical Guardian system. You can arrange to have a neighbour come over, have a family member called, or anyone else you designate as a contact. If you are unable to respond, operators will send local emergency personnel to your home.

Step 3

Help is on the way!

Completely portable, the Medical Guardian medical alert system can go anywhere you do. You can bring the security and peace-of-mind of Medical Guardian with you when you are on vacation, visiting family, or even permanently moving within the United States. Just plug the base station into the wall, notify the monitoring centre of your new location, and you are done. Medical Guardian provides service in all 50 states, allowing you to travel with confidence.

The Advanced Elderly Emergency System

The A.E.E.S improves on the state of the art technology by implementing an AI into the system which helps the user in case of an emergency where the user is unable to manually activate the needed functions on the device. This AI determines whether or not certain actions need to be taken depending on the current situation/enivornment. These actions include, but are not limited to:

• Calling emergency services
• Contacting family members/friends
• Asking the user what his/her state is

Possible Expansions

Detecting tone of voice

By analysing the tone of the users voice it should be possible to make some assumptions about the severity of the situation

USE Aspects

The user of the Advanced Elderly Emergency System are the elderly. Since the number of elderly is increasing, more elderly people will need a way of calling for help when an emergency occurs. Nowadays an elder may have an arm wrist or necklace which has a button to call for help. However, in the future, there will be too many elderly for the number of nurses or doctors. By asking questions, the doctor's job will be easier, which means it will also help the enterprise.

Literature

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Urls

Medical guardian emergency system

https://www.medicalguardian.com/product/premium-guardian

The Best Medical Alert Systems of 2017

http://www.toptenreviews.com/health/senior-care/best-medical-alert-systems/

Speech recognition library

http://arjo129.github.io/uSpeech/

Appendices

This section gives an overview of the progression and planning of our design project. This mainly concerns organizational as well as technical tasks, decisions and ideas that have been performed within our project environment to maintain a successfull and appropriate end result. Explanations on how certain decisions has been made by our design team can be found in the following, relevant sections:

• Appendix A - Project progress (log)
• Appendix B - Planning