Guiding Light is a light-based assistance system that helps participants to maintain their daily structure defined by times and spacial locations throughout the day (and night) inside their apartments.
The system aims to stabilize the:
- personal timely orientation by supporting the circadian rhythm
- spacial navigation by personalized attention-guidance.
Guiding Light uses controllable lights (brightness and color) to adapt room lighting and monitors a person’s movements inside the living space to deduce mobility parameters.
The light-based assistance system part of Guiding Light applies light variations (brightness and color) over time for
- stabilizing the circadian rhythm
- changing light-distribution inside a room for spacial orientation and supporting specific tasks that require good vision
- giving light signals as explicit reminders
These light variations are personalized on the basis of an initially established target structure, daily mobility parameters deduced from motion monitoring, as well as personal feedback of the participants on a regular basis.
The information system part of Guiding Light includes vitality parameters like
- personal mobility measures
- cardiovascular health indicators (optional)
It visualizes this information in a clear manner on different devices (i.e. Info-Screens, mobile App) and enables exchange of this information among involved parties like participants and care-services.
Guiding Light intends to help participants stabilize their daily structure in both time- and spatial means.
As a consequence this should lead to improved
- quality of life
- participation in society
- occupational applications
for elderly people.
Guiding Light also bears potential for possible further applications that demand spacial and timely orientation of humans, like
- intelligent light guidance inside museums
- inside hospitals or for care-givers
- light-based solutions for reminders for important daily activities like taking medication