Elder-friendly%20Home%20Environment

1
Elder-friendly Home Environment

• Eric Tam, PhD
• Jockey Club Rehabilitation Engineering Centre
  Clinic
• Department of Health Technology and Informatics
• Institute of Active Aging
• The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

2
(No Transcript)
3
(No Transcript)
4
Ageing in place
Community -accessibility

• Independency
• Participation
• Care
• Dignity
• self-fulfillment

5
Elder-friendly

• Acceptability (Usability, Affordability)
• Trustworthiness (Safety, Security, Reliability,
  Privacy)

6
Elderly-friendly Home Environment

• Assisted Home Environment
• Effect of Color and Illumination
• Health Smart Home

7
Assisted Home Environment
On average, an older person with a disability
living at home owns about 14 assistive device
8
Barrier free Access - Entrance
9
Elderly Housing
Hong Kong
10
(No Transcript)
11
Toilet Design
12

Elderly Housing
Hong Kong
13
(No Transcript)
14
Walk-in bathtub/shower
15
Temperature Sensing/Indicating Devices
Temperature Sensing Glow Tap

• Prevents your bath from overflowing,
• Plus changes color when bath temp exceeds 36oC.

Suitable for bath plug holes 44mm - 50mm in
diameter
Magiplug Bath Plug
16
Automatic stove

• Auto flame reduction
• Automatic burner switch-off time

17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
The Aging Eye

• Causes of visual function decline
• Loss of lenses elasticity
• Thickening and yellowing of lens
• Reduced transparency of the lenses
• Change in pupil size
• Risk of age related diseases

Arditi, 2005
21
The Aging eye

• Affects acuity
• Accommodation/Focusing
• Speed of adaptation to change
• Perceptual disabilities
• Burring
• ?Spatial abilities
• ? Color discrimination

22
Illumination

• Elderly require more light for equivalent vision
• Mid-light illumination 5x normal
• Indoor passageway 3x normal
• General illumination 1.5x
• Focus illumination 2x

Liu et al., 2001
23
Application of Color

• Improvement of vision, sight and clarity of the
  environment enhance ability of functional
  independency
• Memory and Mood enhancement

24
Color Perception

• Color affects emotion
• Red excitement and strong emotion
• Orange energetic and lively
• Yellow hope and wisdom
• Blue clean and quiet
• Green natural and refreshing

25

• Primary colors
• red, yellow blue
• Secondary colors
• Oragneredyellow
• Tertiary colors
• Blending of a primary
• Color with a secondary
• Color
• Colors are described
• Hue
• Saturation
• Brightness

26
Color interventions suitable for elderly

• the use of bright colors
• color coding/color cueing (or applying effective
  color contrasts)
• selection of color choices based on the
  individuals and cultural preferences and
  associations.

Gohar, 2008
27
Use of Bright Colors

• Bright colors attract, pale colors prevent
• Mood enhancing

28
Color coding

• Used to prompt key elements
• Red to signal stop
• Consistent use of same color ? association

29
Color contrast/color cueing

• White against black..
• 3 basic rules
• Lighten the light and darken the dark
• Use light colors against dark colors
• Avoid contrasting hues from adjacent parts of the
  color wheel

30
Use of selective colors

• Preferred color vs. unfavorable color
• Existing color association
• White signals sterility or cleanliness
• Red signifies luxury/arousal mood
• Cultural considerations!

31
Health smart home

• Special electronics to enable the remote control
  of automated devices specifically designed for
  remote health care

32
Medication reminder

• e-pill Pager Vibrating Medication Reminder (with
  12 alarms)
• Watchminder (with 30 alarms) can also use as a
  memory and cueing device

www.epill.com
www.watchminder.com
33
Medication dispenser

• A week supply of medication with sound reminder
  (with remote monitoring function)

www.vital-linkinc.com
34
Reminder System

• Smart photo frame

35
Physiological Sensors

• Biotextile-based system (smart shirt)

36
Physiological Sensors

• medical mood ring
• monitors the temperature, heart rate and blood
  oxygen levels

37
Vital Sign Sensor

• Pulse Rate
• Skin Temperature
• Motion

38
(No Transcript)
39
Physiological Sensors

• Fall detectors
• User-activated alarms
• Automatic wearable fall detectors
• Video monitoring-based fall detectors
• Floor Vibration-based fall detectors

Philips Lifeline Slimline(tm) Personal Help Button
40
Physiological Sensors

• Fall detectors
• Floor Vibration-based fall detectors.

41
Monitoring Devices
42
Smart Toilet
43
(No Transcript)
44
24 hours monitoring
45
Aging-in-place via Advanced Integrated Sensor
System using Artificial Intelligence

• Talking Bathroom
• Use instructional video to demonstrate how to
  wash hands
• Use computer vision to track hand position and
  location
• Prompt through hand washing
• Using soap, turning off taps and drying hands

46
Concerns

• Health
• Afraid to be to much dependent on a system if its
  not working at some point
• Feels uncomfortable because of the cameras
• Security
• Worried how the information is sent and if it can
  be intercepted
• Do not want their locks controlled by a computer,
  what if it accidently unlocks them

47
Thank You