A mobile-health application to detect wandering patterns of elderly people in home environment

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2013:2013:6748-51. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2013.6611105.

Abstract

Wandering is a common and risky behavior in people with dementia (PWD). In this paper, we present a mobile healthcare application to detect wandering patterns in indoor settings. The application harnesses consumer electronics devices including WiFi access points and mobile phones and has been tested successfully in a home environment. Experimental results show that the mobile-health application is able to detect wandering patterns including lapping, pacing and random in real-time. Once wandering is detected, an alert message is sent using SMS (Short Message Service) to attending caregivers or physicians for further examination and timely interventions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Alzheimer Disease / physiopathology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Monitoring, Physiologic* / instrumentation
  • Monitoring, Physiologic* / methods
  • Patient Identification Systems / methods*
  • Wandering Behavior*
  • Wireless Technology*