Friday, February 13, 2009

Sensors Help Keep the Elderly at Home

A recent article in the New York Times tells stories of elderly who live alone but are being monitors by new technologies designed to enable them to live independently and avoid expensive trips to the emergency room. One elderly lady fell to the floor of her Philadelphia apartment without her emergency alert pendant and could not phone for help, but ...

A wireless sensor under Ms. Branch’s bed detected that she had gotten up. Motion detectors in her bedroom and bathroom registered that she had not left the area in her usual pattern and relayed that information to a central monitoring system, prompting a call to her telephone to ask if she was all right. When she did not answer, that incited more calls — to a neighbor, to the building manager and finally to 911, which dispatched firefighters to break through her door. She had been on the floor less than an hour when they arrived.


Read Full NY Times Article

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