Smart care spaces: pervasive sensing technologies for at-home care

Society is experiencing an ageing demographic, coupled with increasing prevalence of Alzheimer's and Dementia conditions, expected to cause explosive increases in healthcare costs. Therefore, there is currently a need to develop pervasive technologies that allow monitoring of patients at home, where medically permissible, in order to reduce pressures on formal healthcare spaces. Those 'smart care spaces' require use of sensors and intelligent computer systems in order to support the needs of the cared-for, carers and medical personnel. In so doing they can ensure quality-of-life through comfort and adequate medical-monitoring, as well as providing significant data for on-going medical evaluation and diagnosis. This requires two main elements of sensing: sensors to monitor the care environment and patient-mounted sensors to monitor physiological parameters. Therefore, this paper considers technological options available for such monitoring and provides examples of their use. It will be concluded that cost-effective solutions are available for the development of smart care space monitoring, to help ensure that associated computer systems maintain an appropriate level of intelligence.