AUTOMATION TECHNIQUES FOR SMART HOMES FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE

Abstract

The concept of 'smart home' is a promising and cost-effective solution for improving home care for the elderly (and the disabled) in a non-obtrusive way, allowing greater independence, maintaining good health and reducing social isolation. Instead of hospitalization or institutionalization, the elderly (and disabled) can be assisted in their own environment with numerous 'smart' devices such as sensors, actuators, and biomedical monitors. Home automation solutions aim at improving comfort, offering medical support and reducing accidents, thus providing a better quality of life for the resident and his close relatives. Various assistive technologies for elderly, employed in present day smart homes, have been discussed in this work. The objective of this dissertation is to design, develop and integrate a basic home automation system for supporting aged people in their own homes. This system consists of sensors, actuators, local controllers and a central monitoring and control unit. The central monitoring and control system can monitor the node data of different rooms remotely on a computer and initiate assistance procedures as required. The sensors and actuators employed in the rooms, based on the specific requirements of the system, are connected to local controllers (PIC 16f73) which are programmed in assembly language. The local controllers are connected (networked) to each other and to the central monitoring and control unit using ZigBee protocol. This central unit performs both user interactive functions and non-user interactive functions. The former include subject monitoring using wearable smart badge, reminder display and environment personalization. The latter include monitoring of node data, remote control through computer and automatic control based on system requirements. The system has been properly integrated using LABVIEW user interface. Individual automation systems consisting of Infrared Remote control and Video Door Phone have been successfully demonstrated at a low cost and they provide the best solution for improved comfort and security of elderly people.