Intelligent Wireless Sensor Networks for Assisted Living

The large increase in aging population has a strong negative effect on the cost and quality of healthcare. The delivery of clinical care through assistive monitoring represents a cost-effective solution to this problem. This paper describes an Assisted Living system, called Secure and INDependent LIving (SINDI) focused on the intelligent use of technology to improve the quality of life of people who live mainly at home, enhancing their autonomy. SINDI has two main components: (i) a network of tiny sensors that continuously collects data about the environment and the person monitored and (ii) a logic-based reasoning component that supports relatives and caregivers in understanding the person’s health status. The sensor network of SINDI has a large number of sensors both in fixed locations and on the patient’s body and it requires a clever management of routing and power consumption. The logic-based reasoning system is able not only to trace general habits of a patient (walking ability, quality of sleep, body movements) in an unobtrusive way, but also to understand the evolution of patient’s health state and to prevent situations that could be potentially critical, before the emergency arises. The paper describes the sensor network, the reasoning system and their interplay.