Support system for elderly care with ambient sensors in indoor environment

The aging society is becoming one of the global issues recently, and especially in Japan, more than 25% of its population is over 65 years old. However, there is not enough number of caregivers to deal with the rapid expansion of demands. To support caregivers, the introduction of ICT is progressing. However, some problems such as the invasion of privacy are pointed out. In this paper, an ambient sensor system is proposed to monitor elderly people without surveillance cameras. The system uses unique RFID tags which have a pressure sensing unit. Those tags are put at multi-point around elderly people and detect a change in the pressure environment. In addition, a cleaning robot is used to confirm the safety of an elderly person when detecting a fall. The system also monitors a position of the robot by putting a tag group. With those pressure sensing method and indoor positioning method of the robot, the system monitors elderly people's behavior without invading the privacy.