(Photo by Marcus Aurelius via Pexels)
By Stephen Beech
Bluetooth-based technology could help elderly people stay independent, suggests new research.
A new “indoor positioning system” works better than GPS for tracking precise locations - and could be a boost to healthcare and other fields, say scientists.
They say the Bluetooth-based positioning system could offer healthcare systems a "low-energy, low-cost" method of tracking older adults’ mobility.
Study leader Professor Qiyin Fang, of McMaster University in Canada, explained that the Global Positioning System (GPS) is the dominant positioning technology today.
However, its use indoors is limited due to the difficulty in communicating with GPS satellites.
But Fang says the knowledge of a person’s position is "critical" for many real-time healthcare applications, including monitoring older adults in both their homes and long-term care facilities.
For the new study, published in the journal PLOS Digital Health, Fang and his colleagues designed, developed and validated a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)- based Indoor Positioning System (IPS).
The IPS measures and tracks specific users’ locations continuously throughout the day.
Brett Jordan
Fang said IPS relies on small, wireless beacons plugged into wall outlets and wearable Bluetooth tags.
But, importantly, it does not require a professional setup or detailed floor plans and costs less than £150 for a typical setup involving five beacons.
To test the BLE-based IPS, the research team placed the system in two different suburban homes.
The system was able to correctly identify a person’s location 96% of the time when it combined Bluetooth signals with motion sensors.
The research team suggested that the technology could be used to monitor people’s locations as well as for tracking of medical equipment in dynamic environments such as hospitals.
Fang said: “The potential for real-time, context-aware healthcare monitoring can significantly improve patient safety and caregiver efficiency, driving further research in this area."
He added: “The McMaster team developed an indoor positioning system specifically for tracking older adults' mobility in their own homes.
"The technology was designed for low-cost implementation and operation, which is critical for use in existing homes."
