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Towards development of Internet of things based solutions to fulfil older adult’s needs

by Gomathi Thangavel 

According to a Swedish study [1], older people prefer to stay at their own home because they feel

  • Home means safety and security – familiar neighbourhood, planned building according to one´s own need, having
  • Home means freedom – Independence, Governing daily

Internet of Things (IoT) connects machines, devices, sensors and people. Our everyday appliances are getting “smart”, sensors are getting cheaper, and IoT solutions which links them are being developing at a rapid phase. These devices will be part of a future homes. So it is intuitive to study how IoT solutions can be used to improve older adults quality of life and help them age. Previous study which reviewed IoT in the context of ageing mostly revolves around two main perspectives; technical perspective and human perspective. Technical mainly focus on physiological needs (i.e., Health) like assisted living, medicine, safety and monitoring. Whereas human perspective focus on user social needs. Also the review suggested to have a focus on areas where the two themes converge and empower users to be independent, socially active and have more control over their lives [2]. So the main aim of this study is to develop an IoT solution for older adult’s everyday needs including physiological and social.

Study will be carried out in 3 phases. Initially, a pilot study will be carried out through focus group interview with 5 older adults above 65+ (both healthy and specific chronically ill users) to first understand their views and needs, and then design scenarios accordingly. Secondly, specific case studies will be conducted with a large group of older adults above 65+ based on the identified scenarios to finalise the requirements. Finally, based on the requirements, a prototype IoT solution will be designed and evaluated.

Acknowledgement

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska -Curie grant agreement No 754285

References:

  1. Haak, M., Fänge, A., Iwarsson, S., & Dahlin Ivanoff, S. (2007). Home as a signification of independence and autonomy: experiences among very old Swedish people. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 14(1), 16-24.
  2. Soro, A., Ambe, A. H., & Brereton, M. (2017). Minding the Gap: Reconciling Human and Technical Perspectives on the IoT for Healthy Ageing. Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing,