Home technology presents a wealth of opportunities for integrators in the assisted living sector. Amy Stoneham looks at some of the possibilities this market presents.
As a population that is living longer, we are looking at technology to help keep us safe in our homes for longer, while helping to ease pressures on over stretched healthcare systems. In addition to the elderly, technology is helping disabled people too. That might be parents using technology to help with their disabled child at home, or it could be used to help an adult with disabilities live a more independent life.
Some consider the assisted living sector to be an untapped market. However, there are many companies doing incredible things in this sector.
It can offer numerous benefits to people’s overall well-being and quality of life, as Christian Kiefel, CEO of ProKNX says: “Living independently allows older people and those with disabilities to maintain autonomy, make their own choices, and control their daily lives. This sense of independence gives them purpose and self-worth, which is crucial for mental health and life satisfaction. Technology can significantly enhance independent living in aspects such as safety and monitoring, health management, mobility and accessibility.”
While home technology can help the assisted living in many ways, it’s important to understand that it does not replace human care, as Axel Steinhage, managing director of Future-Shape explains: “Of course, technology cannot replace a human carer. Particularly in the transitional phase between autonomy and a severe need for care, technical systems can delay the need for admission to inpatient care. However, technology can, for example, raise the alarm in the event of accidents (falls, immobility), and can also have a preventative effect, such as reminding the resident that the cooker is on. Some technologies can even recognise gradual changes in a person’s state of health, for example, changes in daily routines, and alert relatives or outpatient carers.”
One of the many benefits of SensFloor is that it can detect a fall and get help quickly
Discreet systems, not scary systems
Smart home systems are sometimes considered to be complex and intrusive, which can be a scary concept to elderly or disabled people who might worry about security issues or that the technology is too complex for them, putting them off looking at home technology to help them with their needs.
The assisted living market, for both the elderly and disabled, features very specialised systems that often provide non-intrusive monitoring and general help that are simple and easy-to-use, and often completely hidden as if the technology is not even there.
Being discreet is key, a motto many assisted living tech providers build their products on. “The common ground with a lot of the equipment is that it doesn’t necessarily need internet to work,” says Louise Pernici, co-founder and CEO of Stories. “It doesn’t send data every minute, it doesn’t provide information about you that you don’t want to be provided, there is no possible data leak risk with a lot of this equipment which is key in this market. Innovation is something we really need to demystify because many older people see innovation as being scary – they see it as being too complex and gives people access to their personal information. We need to make it simpler for these people and less scary as it will really help them in their everyday lives.”
As well as data privacy, it’s also important that technology is installed discreetly too, as Steinhage analyses: “When it comes to privacy, most people only think of the violation of personal rights by image-recording sensors (e.g. cameras). But it is also important that visitors are not directly informed about the residents’ need for care by visible, conspicuous sensors in the home. In this respect, our SensFloor technology [a giant touchpad sensor installed under the flooring] is an ambient assisted living system because it assists ambiently and is invisibly integrated into the environment.”
ProKNX’s Aragon speaker is an offline voice assistant, providing unobtrusive assistance in the home
SensFloor
There are many tech providers in this space building systems that can help with specific needs in the home. One such product is the SensFloor from Future-Shape, which is a 3mm thin textile underlay that features built-in wireless proximity sensors. It is glued directly to the subflooring and can be covered with any conventional flooring, from carpets and PVC to rigid ceramic tiles, parquet or laminate.
Steinhage gives an overview of how the technology works: “Depending on the selected spatial resolution, between 16 and 55 densely distributed sensor fields per square metre measure the number, presence, speed and direction of people walking across the floor. While an identification of individual persons is not possible, special events such as a person laying on the floor after a fall can be identified. It is even possible to record the gait pattern of people which gives medical experts information about potential diseases.
“The sensor data is transmitted wirelessly from the floor to an embedded device in the electrical installation box in the apartment. That device reconstructs the location and type of event that has happened (edge-computing), and depending on the application case, is connected to smart home devices, emergency alarm systems or a screen in the nursing room.”
The data coming from the giant touchpad floor sensor can be analysed by intelligent algorithms and used in various ways. Notifications can be configured to suit the resident to monitor certain behaviours. The main feature of the floor for elderly people is to detect falls and notify caregivers or residents if it detects a person has fallen to get them the help they need quickly. It can also be used if a person has dementia, for example, notifying relatives and carers if the resident leaves the home at night.
The data can also be recorded over a longer period of time to allow deviations from the individual’s normal routine to be recognised. For example, the system can calculate the average time it takes to get up and will issue a warning if this time shifts continuously.
Ropox provides height variable furniture to help wheelchair users or children access things safely
Aragon
Mastering the non-intrusive theme of assisted living technology, ProKNX introduced the Aragon smart speaker back in 2019 and it has been continually developed since then.
“Aragon is a voice assistant that works independently of cloud services,” says Kiefel. “Once put into operation, the devices work locally in the installation without the need for an external connection. What’s said at home stays at home and hacker attacks are excluded.”
Upgrading the experience, ProKNX has recently released its Aragon Master which can intelligently adapt to a person’s behaviour, as Kiefel explains: “Aragon can work proactively and prevent problems before they arise. It receives events transmitted via KNX bus components, the SensFloor, or other IoT devices. It can also react to voice and trigger functions in building automation or launch calls for help.”
A key feature of the speaker is that it is offline, providing operational security meaning that access to external data or computing power is not required at any time. It can give the resident more comfort knowing that they are not being observed and their personal data is not being transmitted or recorded.
Ageing often causes various physical and cognitive changes that can affect a self-sufficient lifestyle. With that in mind, Aragon is ideal for the assisted living sector as it offers proactive assistance. “Particularly when used in conjunction with Future-Shape’s SensFloor, information can be transmitted via the floor’s sensors,” Kiefel adds. “This includes automatic functions being enabled, such as switching on lights when stepping onto the floor to go to the toilet at night. It also provides voice prompts, like, ‘would you like to turn off the stove’ when leaving the kitchen, and reminders or recommendations can be given, such as, ‘it’s too late to leave the house and go out’ when, for example, someone with dementia tries to leave the house in the middle of the night.”
The SensFloor can be used under any flooring
Compatibility
In any smart home, it is essential that systems work together to create a whole home solution rather than having multiple different systems working independently of each other. This is perhaps even more important in the case of assisted living.
A lot of the systems are built around the KNX protocol for this reason and allows discreet, unobtrusive and user-friendly integration for the intended users.
A partnership has recently formed between ProKNX, Future-Shape and Theben. Theben is the creator of LUXORliving, a KNX-based smart home system that can be wired, expandable by radio or completely wireless. After working on so many projects together, the three manufacturers thought it made sense to make an official partnership to enhance their solutions as a whole system for users.
“ProKNX was confronted with the SensFloor system in several orders that were placed independently of each other,” states Kiefel. “The task then came about quite automatically as a result of ideas even from our customers. The concept that was ultimately created underlines the great developments of our companies as a trend-setting solution.
“Theben’s LUXORliving solution enables simple retrofitting of home automation for existing residential complexes without the need for cable laying and chiselling work. The partnership between the three means that the customer can rely on the fact that the components are coordinated in detail and that the companies stand up for each other.”
Thanks to a new partnership, the Aragon smart speaker and SensFloor work together to introduce even more automations and capabilities
Technology for everyone
Integrators need to consider other residents living in the home that might not be elderly or disabled. It is important that the technology is usable for them and their needs, too.
Stories is a company that works on assisted living projects, using technology from different manufacturers according to case by case needs and putting it all together into a home system. Stories helps elderly people, disabled adults and families with disabled children to realise the potential that technology can have in their homes to give them an easier and safer lifestyle.
“When Franck [co-founder of Stories] and I were founding the company, I did a lot of research into our target audience,” says Pernici. “Something that emerged quickly was that most people don’t live alone, and their needs might differ to the person with assistive needs. So, we started thinking with a more holistic approach, which requires universal representation to devise solutions that are good for everyone. And that became our statement for Stories.”
When specifying the technology, it’s important to know the needs of the user and what they want the outcome to be, an expertise of Stories. “We can’t anticipate what people really need,” says Pernici. “But one thing is for sure, they know better than anyone what they really want. It’s not always about making the space accessible for the elderly or disabled residents but also for their relatives who live with them. In homes with disabled children, for example, the family wants the home to have as much of an ordinary routine for the abled siblings and an adapted routine for the disabled children. That includes all the equipment for the house and its use. Thus, we aim to make every home aesthetically pleasing with seamlessly integrated technology, treating each space with all profiles of inhabitants in mind."
The main idea is to add resources to the space that allows everyone to exploit their full physical potential. That can include height variable furniture from Ropox, like kitchen worktops that can be lowered for a wheelchair user or for a child, for example, as well as SensFloor to automate different functions that benefit the residents, like detecting a fall and sending an alert to a different room or relative, or lighting up spaces for someone with visual impairments to help guide them through the home.
This is something that technology providers are thinking about too. The SensFloor, for example, doesn’t have to only be used for assisted living purposes. It can also enhance a smart home in other ways, as Steinhage suggests: “In principle, SensFloor recognises where and how many people are present. This can also be used to control general comfort functions such as automatic lighting, automatic doors, heating and ventilation. As the decision to install such a system, particularly in private homes, is often made by people who don’t yet envision that they will need care in the future, these additional functions can provide a further incentive to buy.”
Similarly, the Aragon speaker can also enhance the overall living of families in smart homes who do not yet have additional care needs. “The universal usability is important as it ensures all family members can benefit from and interact with the smart home features,” says Kiefel. “It enhances the overall living experience for all residents and can lead to increased adoption and more efficient use of the smart home system. In emergency situations, it’s crucial that all household members can operate the smart home devices, including offline smart speakers.
“To achieve universal usability, the technology may need some adjustments or considerations for controlling home systems. In particular, the proactive questions will seem rather annoying for younger people, while for mentally impaired, older people, they will be more stimulating and helpful.”
Main image: SensFloor from Future-Shape is essentially a giant touchpad of sensors that can be integrated under any flooring