Development of a Smart Home for Elder-People Based on Wireless Sensors

Abstract

A smart home specifically for the elder people has been plannedto be developed using wireless sensors. The design intricacies andimplementation details of a novel Wireless Sensors systems has been targetedto achieve that. The system is designed to support people who wish to livealone but, because of old age, ill health or disability, there is some riskin this, which worries their family or friends. The system works on theprinciple of using sensor units (SU) to monitor the appliance throughout ahouse and detect when certain desired electrical equipments are turned on.Rules are defined for appliances to turn on in certain time intervals. Therules are flexible and can be user-defined based on the daily activities ofa person. Several levels of alarm conditions have been created based oncombination of rules that are violated. Any number of sensor units may beinstalled in a house, one each to monitor an electrical appliance. A centralcontroller unit (CCU) queries the sensor units and logs the data into a PCat a pre-defined rate. Communication between the SUs and the controller isusing radio-frequency wireless media. The rules inference engine runs on thePC and whenever the situation requires, sends a text message to thecare-givers or relatives. Since no vision sensors (camera or infra-red) areused, the system is non-invasive, respects privacy and has found wideacceptance. The system is completely customizable, allowing the user toselect which appliances to monitor and define exactly what is classified asunusual behavior. Some other sensors such as bed sensors, gas sensor etc.,are considered to make the system a complete system suitable to define adigital home.