Warning System for Home Monitoring

There’s new research into a home people tracking system to detect people who are isolated at home. The context is home isolation due to Covid but this could equally be used for people with limited mobility who need to stay indoors.

The idea is to use Bluetooth rather than visual, camera-based monitoring. Smart bracelets are used that can also monitor position, blood oxygen and heart rate.

The system can also send early warning signals to organisations or relatives through instant messaging software.

The system is implemented using ESP32 single board computers and a Raspberry Pi for data collection.

This uses MQTT, Node-Red and a database.

View Wearable Beacons

Aging in Place Assisted by Bluetooth Beacons

There’s recent research on Active Aging in Place Supported by a Caregiver-Centered Modular Low-Cost Platform (pdf) by João Paulo Rangel Marques Capinha of Nova School Of Science And Technology, Portugal. Aging in place is where the elderly reside in their own homes rather than being taken into care.

A platform is proposed that supports aging in place with a focus on Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to stimulate the elderly to remain active for longer, remain in society and live independently.

The paper describes beacon advertising protocols, received signal strength (RSSI), real time location systems (RTLS), trilateration and fingerprinting. It lists similar projects such as CarePredict, SANITAG, DOMO, 2PCS, CARU, LIFEPOD.

Knowing the routine of daily activities allows detection of activities, critical situations and vocal calls for assistance.

The system uses Bluetooth beacons, Bluetooth temperature/humidity sensors, ESP32-based gateways and Bluetooth wearables. It uses machine learning techniques to identify situations of potential risk, triggering triage processes and consequently any necessary actions so that a caregiver can intervene in a timely manner.

A receiver within Bluetooth bracelets detects beacons in rooms. When in a room, sensors in the room are triggered by the platform through the gateway located in the room.

Bluetooth Sensors for the Smart Home

Karl Wachs, author of the pibeacon plugin for indigo domotics Mac-based smart home software, has a new release on GitHub that includes many INGICS and Minew sensor beacons on our web store.

Indigo domotics provides complex conditions and advanced scheduling via an intuitive interface. The detection of Bluetooth sensors greatly expands the capabilities of the system.

Apple Mac Smart Home
Smart Home on the Apple Mac – Indigo also provide iOS and Web based interfaces.

The plugin tracks iBeacons using multiple Raspberry Pis. Sensor data is read and sent to a variety of output devices.

The use of the system isn’t just limited to the smart home. The system can be used in offices and industry SMEs to provide for arbitrary sensor based detection and triggering.

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