STTR PHASE I: Design, Evaluation, and Feasibility Study of a Personal Assistant System

This STTR Phase I project addresses the cost of senior care using technology-assisted support. The project advances developments in sensing, object localization/tracking, and wireless communications technologies to make possible the unobtrusive supervision of basic needs of frail elderly. By implementation of a cost-effective, reliable, secure, and open software infrastructure that provides real-time interaction between elderly people and remote care providers consumers their transfers to skilled nursing facilities and improve the quality of their lives (by preserving independence). The University Of Illinois, has designed, partially developed, and evaluated a wireless-based system infrastructure, called the Personal Assistant System (PAS), that facilitates preservation of independence and quality of life of frail elderly, through time-based reminders of daily activities, non-intrusive monitoring of physiological functions and mobility profiles, and automated fall detection and emergency assistance. The current effort builds upon this initial progress with enhancements in security, reliability, ubiquity and privacy. This project will have broader impacts on critical quality-of-life issues of the baby boom generation. Indications suggest that the nation's and, moreover, the world's growing elderly population represent a ready and waiting market for this new technology. From the perspective of Social Security, by replicating services of on-site health care providers with PAS and enabling elderly people to maintain their independence, PAS will likely extend the period of time a patient remains in either the home environment or the independent living facility. The savings to society in reduced healthcare costs could be significant.