AQUEDUC: Improving Quality and Efficiency of Care for Elders in Real Homes

Elderly care is facing the challenge of the disequilibrium between the increased number of old people and the low number of personnel in the elderly care. The emerging pervasive technology has revolutionised the way of assistance in elderly care. Current solutions usually focus too much on technology, and fail to address the usability issues. In this paper, we offer a comprehensive system for both elderly care providers and elders. The system enables coordinators to manage care-givers and elders in an efficient way to improve service quality. For instance, care-givers can be scheduled in a real-time manner with mobile phones. We also deploy several sensors in their homes to monitor daily routines to ensure their safety. Alerts will be sent and accessible by coordinators immediately once detected, then elderly care services can be provided accordingly. We test our system in a real home for over 2 months. Finally, we offer a statistical study about the collected data and the reported alerts.