A senior’s guardian angel
Falling in your own home is a great worry for elderly living by themselves. With this worry in mind, and as part of a project aimed to develop future health care at home, the engineers at the Stockholm-based Centre for Health and Building, CHB, have constructed a wheeled walker with a built-in camera eye, guidance computer and videophone function.
If the user of the wheeled walker falls in his home and presses his alarm button around his wrist, the camera can be navigated with a joystick from a terminal to search for the fallen person and once found he can communicate with nurses through a video call. The device is not only a great security for the senior himself, but also for worrying close family. None of the technology used is new but it is an innovative way of bringing communication devices to the homes of elderly to increase their safety.
So far, the high-tech wheeled walker is only available in CHB’s Full Scale Living Laboratory where R&D projects are undertaken to find cost-efficient and innovative ways to improve and enhance the usage of the normal home as a place of care.
Source: Interview with Professor Tore J Larsson at the Centre for Health and Building 16th of November 2011