IoT-based Ambient Parameters Monitoring Device for in-Home Elderly Care

During the last decades, more and more demographic, social and economic changes have influenced the percentage of the ageing population, leading thus to an increasing number of elderly people, correlated with a direct and dramatic influence on the healthcare and social services. Furthermore, the grown longevity of the elderly, the shortage of an appropriate number of caretakers and the raising empowerment of the seniors regarding the self-management of their health status, have led to the stringent necessity of implementing smart environments inside their homes in order to benefit of a prolonged independent, active, healthy and secure life. The Internet of Things (IoT) technology has gained a lot of attention due to its strong potential for supporting these smart environments through devices that can remotely monitor elderly's health and daily activities, without the need to be constantly assisted by a medical specialist. For a comprehensive elderly-targeted remote monitoring able to sustain proactive and preventive measures, the ambient factors should be closely measured and correlated with the physiological and physical vital parameters. RO-SmartAgeing is an undergoing project which aims to create such a smart environment in the home of an elderly person for providing accurate and less-intrusive health and lifestyle monitoring and support services. This paper highlights a component of RO-SmartAgeing project, namely a system that guarantees the collection of ambient-related parameters in order to keep under control the home environment of the patient. Apart from the suggested literature review, as to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed system, both a proof of concept is used in order to describe the idea and the functionality of the product, and also the conclusions drawn after some preliminary tests have been performed.