Handrail-Shaped IoT Sensor for Long-Term Monitoring of the Mobility in Elderly People

摘要

Cognitive and physical functions gradually decline because of aging. To support healthy and safe living of elderly individuals, a system that can monitor their activities of daily living is needed. This paper proposes a handrail-shaped sensor as a new Internet of Things (IoT)-type sensing system for long-term monitoring of the mobility of elderly people. The handrail-shaped sensor detects changes in mobility using information on movement velocity and the degree of dependence on the handrail. To evaluate the effectiveness of the sensor, we first assessed the accuracy of estimating the position of the load applied to the handrail in our laboratory. We then field-tested the handrail sensor in the home of an 88-year-old woman. The experimental results show that the handrail sensor can estimate the walking speed as well as the grasping position of an elderly person in an actual daily living environment.