Friday, October 5, 2012

No. 625: A new system that uses radio waves to watch an elderly person living alone (October 5, 2012)

Technology:
Oki Electric developed a technology to keep an eye on an elderly person living alone. The new technology makes it possible to get detailed information on his conditions with the help of radio waves. Unlike the technology that uses infrared rays, it allows the system administrator to watch an elderly person and recognize a sudden falling and rapid changes of his aspiration. The device used by this technology is palm-sized, and it emits radio waves of 24 MHz. It can be put on the wall of living room and bathroom, and the system analyzes the radio waves that emit from the body of an elderly person.

Because radio waves that bounce from the body vary with human behavior, the system can detect even a small move like aspiration. The system does not violate the privacy of an elderly person because it does not need a camera. The company did an experiment of this system in a detached house and confirmed that it recognized the behavior of an elderly person with such high accuracy of 90%. When an emergency occurs, the system informs the hospital and family members of the emergency immediately.  

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