A Centralised Cloud-Based Monitoring System for Older Adults in a Community

Abstract

Recent advancements in the Internet of Things and the miniaturisation of low-cost sensing devices allow for the unobtrusive collection of data for human activity recognition and behaviour modelling. A useful application of this in the context of ambient assisted living is in the monitoring of older adults daily for improved wellbeing and quality of life. The existing solutions are based on per-individual monitoring, therefore the systems are managed independently for each ambient intelligent environment. In this paper, we proposed a centralised system for the collective monitoring of individuals in a community. The proposed approach is based on a cloud-based solution where data collection and processing are centralised. Since the data are aggregated for all the residents, the system has the potential of promoting social interaction among the community residents. Additionally, the cost of the in-home monitoring system can be reduced since only the sensing devices are required for data collection, while the processing is carried out on the cloud infrastructure. This also reduces the tedious tasks required in setting up individual home monitoring systems. The role of assistive robots, the possibility of remote monitoring and potential challenges of the proposed approach are explored.