Toward an ElderCare Living Lab for Sensor-Based Health Assessment and Physical Therapy
Prasad P. Calyam, Isa Jahnke, Anup Kumar Mishra, Ronny Bazan Antequera, Dmitrii Chemodanov, Marjorie Skubic · IEEE Cloud Computing · 2017
There is an increasing demand to develop innovations in eldercare technologies that can be delivered as 'Apps' at a cloud-scale to facilitate proactive monitoring and targeted care coordination. This article presents the design for an 'ElderCare-as-a-SmartService' (ECaaS) system that integrates Apps for in-home health monitoring, and remote physical therapy coaching, respectively. The focus is on the transformation of the Apps into a cloud-based living lab, which then enables on-going App development/refinement to realize a real-world enhanced living environment for eldercare that is secure, privacy-preserving and socially embedded. We detail the system and network requirements for cloud-based delivery of ECaaS Apps featuring sensor data analysis and interactive interfaces across urban, suburban and rural areas. We conclude with a proposal for sociotechnical investigations that can be lead to a human-centered design that engages older adults and care coordinators as co-developers of ECaaS, while also simultaneously improving their quality of life.