While up to 50% of people will not be able to walk again unaided, 20% die in the first year following a hip fracture. Did you know that one week of bed rest reduces strength by 20% and bone mineral density by 1%? The financial costs of falls and fractures are also enormous with one in five fallers requiring medical attention. Health and social care costs of fractures (mostly hip fractures) is estimated to be nearly      £2 billion per year.

Current European Research for the next decade

It is anticipated that micro- and nano-system technology will increase the functionality of lifestyle and healthcare devices to gradually match the needs of society.

It is expected that, in the next decade, technology will enable people to carry their personal body area network (BAN) that provides medical, lifestyle, wellness, assisted living, sports and entertainment functions for the user.

This network comprises a series of miniature sensor/actuator nodes, implanted or located at the body surface. Each node has its own energy supply, consisting of storage and energy harvesting devices. Each node has enough intelligence to carry out its task.

Furthermore, each node is able to communicate with other sensor nodes or with a gateway node worn on the body. The gateway node communicates with the outside world using a standard telecommunication infrastructure such as a wireless local area or cellular phone network.

On the other extremity of the network, experts then provide services to the individual wearing the BAN. Intelligent or expert systems further include data fusion algorithms for the aggregation of body sensor data into metrics quantifying an individual's health status, his physical, cognitive and emotional state. Next generation of BAN will include feedback loops for health, performance or stress management.

TellMate is an assistive technology product created to enable people with vision problems to access to information easier than ever before. With the RFID technology, this palm size device enables you to create your own object identification (ID), message and information to be labeled accordingly. The reading method is as simple as having the device scanning over the label and the device will “tell” you your message or recording (from the label). TellMate is designed to be carried around in the pocket. It has many sophisticated, yet easy to-use features to access and to create information you need without wasting time.

APPLICATIONS are now expanded to:

1) As assistive Device

1.1) Visually Impaired and seniors

1.2) For individual and service providers.

1.2) Other disabilities – as communicator and other forms of assistance.

2) As an educational and learning tool.

3) Commercial applications

4) Consumer applications

The TellMate SCANNER mode

1) IDENTIFICATION and DIFFERENTIATION TellMate is specifically designed to allow Visually Impaired persons (VI) and the Elderly to Identify and Differentiate ( I & D ) items and objects on their own as much as possible. This implies that everything and anything can be I & D by the user. But for practical reasons, especially when the device is new to the user, it is recommended to start with essential items or objects.

Here are some examples of implementations that are currently done or being proposed.

Personal or individual environment.

I & D of : Documents, working files, printed materials (books, magazines). CDs, cassettes tapes. Various types of cards in a wallet or name cards. Eye drop bottles that the user must I & D on the types and expiry dates. A row of switches on the wall or any physically same dimension/shape objects. Apparel and personal wears ( note : special labels needed for laundry environment). Food and drink packages, on kitchen shelf or in the refrigerator.

Public environment: Restaurants providing V I friendly menu so that the V I can understand what is on menu and place order on their own. Public or private libraries providing reading materials with information of title, synopsis and about author for V I to I & D required reading materials.

EDUCATION and LEARNING

Personal or individual environment. Learning a new procedure that requires a series of tasks to be carried out in sequential order. Revision of teaching materials that are prepared in TellMate system. Learning by “ concept forming ” of a new object, shape, etc.. by way of touch sensing and listening to explanations at the same time.

Public environment: For an inclusive educational system in mainstream or private schools, educational materials for the V I, TellMate system can be used to complement the use of braille teaching materials. These digital version of the materials are certainly faster and cheaper to produce and edit.

SIMPLE MOBILITY GUIDE

Personal or individual environment. Visiting another VI friend’s home, and being guided on how to move about in the home.

Public environment: In high rise housing, labels placed on each floor ( e.g., just next to lift button ) for V I to ascertain that they have come off the lift to the correct floor. The information accessed here can also include directions – like turn left for units 1 to 10, right for units 11 to 20. In private hostel where VI are accomodated, mobility guidance along corridors and I&D of each room. This is also application to commercial lodging provider when they cater to the needs of VI.

Blind navigation for school, college and university. Contact us for more details.

More applications are developing daily.

Eldery GPS Tracking

An application of a GPS Eldery Person "Outside Movement Tracker", providing a Positioning Service through a call centre. Using a Mobile phone integrated to a GPS tracker system.

(1) Uses GPS (with possible option of dGPS) to give the location, within a metre or so, if the EP position is out of doors. The coordinates may be sent to the Call Centre, where someone can look them up on a map, and tell the EP where they are. Enhancements of this service, using automatic look up via geo-database on the web, with text to speech option to read out the EP position in meaningful terms (e.g. “you are outside Tesco”). The function can be used for warning an EP if they are prone to wander, find them if they have wandered, and track their position if that is useful (given the authority to do so – an ethical consideration).

 This system is useful for the elderly person (EP) who has poor vision, or who has early dementia and is prone to wandering and then doesn’t know where they are, and has to be found.

(2) The Elderly Person can take a picture using the phone camera to help the Call Centre to visualise precisely where the person is. This is also a back-up to GPS, in case it’s not working (e.g. due to canyon effect of high buildings, or because the person has gone into a building).

Falls prevention and event detection
The importance of this cannot be overstated, with estimated £2 billion per year spent in the UK’s National Health Service as the result of fracture head of femur from falls. This has enormous social and personal repercussions, as well as financial. Thus as small improvement in prevention of falls, e.g. by careful monitoring of biological function, has enormous benefits.

A Mobile phone integrated with a Wrist Unit can provide the following features.

Terms used EP - Elderly Person, WU - Wrist Unit, SC - Service or call centre.

Functions:
(1) Maintaining health: Monitor that EP takes regular exercise, by analysing movement, temperature, sweat and/or pulse rate. (Movement can be detected using accelerometers in the WU or placed elsewhere. A pedometer could also be used.) Monitor body weight and weight of fluid and solid intake using weighing machine with Bluetooth link to the WU.

Note: Other services may be used. One will use the reminder service to remind EP to take medicine, take exercise, go to the toilet, etc. The environment service can monitor that the environment has not become hostile: too hot, cold, dark (e.g. for going down stairs), etc. The logistics service can help with diet selection,
shopping, cooking, etc.

(2) Detecting warning signs: Monitor heart using electro-cardio sensors. (Since a number are generally placed in different positions on the body, this type of monitoring might only be for 24 hours or less.) For epilepsy, monitor conditions that could trigger a seizure (e.g. flashing lights, using light sensor) or that could indicate an oncoming seizure (if this proves possible).

(3) Detecting fall events and seizures: Monitor for anomalous movement of the WU, using accelerometers.
(Tilt sensor on the EP’s torso, with Bluetooth link to the WU, may also be considered.) Monitor temperature of skin and air, checking that a gradient is maintained. Monitor sweat to note any sudden increase, or gradual decrease (but take into account humidity effects from rain, washing, bathing, etc).

(4) Recovery: Detect warning signs of relapse or side effects after treatment, operation, new medicine, etc.,
see (2) above.

(5) Palliative care: Monitor for conditions that indicate that the EP might be in pain or distress.

Environment control service
´This is important, particularly for an elderly person who is in a wheel chair, or has mobility problems.
(1) Access to devices/appliances/etc via Home Bus. (uses mains wiring)
(2) Access to devices/appliances/etc via Infra Red (IR). The system includes a converter box, enabling signals, sent by Bluetooth from the WU, to be converted to IR signals in order to control TV etc. The box would be placed in a position in the room where there is line of sight to the device to be controlled (since this is required for IR). 

Identification and labelling service
This is valuable for people with poor eyesight, who can’t read small print on cartons, etc. In the case of very low vision, this service helps with labelling things and helping to find to subsequently identify them.
Functions:
(1) Using close-up lens on MP’s camera, a EP can photo the bar code which will then be analysed using OCR techniques to give a product identification number. This can then be stored for future reference, or sent to the SC to look up in a database of such product identities, to find information about the product to send to the EP (or tell the EP about over the phone).
(2) Bar codes can be put on a set of labels for the EP to attach to items to enable the EP to subsequently select the item. Furthermore there can be a voice description associated with the item, recorded using the microphone of the WU.
(3) Using close-up lens on the camera EP can photo the small print on an item, and send itto the SC to be read. Relevant information can then be sent back to the EP.

 (4) Using an RFID scanner, RFID tags on objects can give a code, which can potentially include sell-by-date and other useful data (not available with a bar code). The identity part of the code can be used as in (1).
(5) Labelling using RFID tags, otherwise as in (2).
6. Medication and reminder service
It is very important for a frail person on medication to take their medication as and when necessary. This is an important factor in the prevention of falls.
Function: (1) Timing function in the WU can alert user, via vibrator and/or sound, that some action is required, such as taking medication or going to the toilet. There may be text and/or a recorded message concerning what action is to be taken. This service may be used in conjunction with the labelling service to ensure the correct medication is selected.
(2) A “switch detector” box can signal to WU via Bluetooth, that a something has changed state, e.g. that a lever has been moved on a pill dispenser, or that the door to the toilet has been opened and closed. This function can be used in conjunction with function (1) to check that medication was actually taken, or toilet visited, within a certain time after the EP was reminded. Failure of the EP to take action can be signalled to the SC for appropriate intervention, considering the EP’s history, etc.
(3) Before going out for shopping or an appointment, the EP may wish to check that they “look OK”, and take a photo with the MP’s camera for sending to the SC (or helper) to be looked at. Conversely, a person at SC or helper can ask the EP to take a photo, when for example the temperature sensor suggests that the EP is
inappropriately dressed for the cold.
7. Text communication service
This particular helps elderly people with a visual impairment, so, for example, they have difficulty with the small buttons of a mobile phone for texting and reading the LCD.
Function:
(1) write text (using buttons or single-character speech recognition), display it on the LCD, and speak it with TTS.
(2) read text, a word at a time, on the LCD, and have it spoken with TTS.
(3) Textphone: receive and read text messages while talking to other party.
(4) Have text sent to SC for someone to read it out.
8. Logistics service
This particularly helps people with dementia who are confused as what to do.
Function: Help EP to perform tasks and sequences of operations, such as for cooking or finding items in a shop. A person at the SC can talk the EP through such activities, and send pictures to help explain what the EP has to do.