Smart home for elderly

In a smart home, the technology automatically takes over everyday processes for us. We all benefit from this - but older or frail people in particular gain a better quality of life with the intelligent systems. Because they can live independently again. How Assisted Living works in detail.

For many seniors, an independent life in their own apartment is the greatest wish. But without outside help, many find it difficult to cope with everyday life on their own. This is where technology can help: With a smart home automation system, certain scenarios can be programmed in your own home and thus support the residents with normal processes, or they automatically call for help when they need help. Even calling for help can be simplified with technology: in the event of a health emergency, for example, the resident can activate all lights and alarm systems and inform relatives with just one push of a button on the panic switch. Care services can also be closely integrated into the smart home . An overview of the technical possibilities.

Smart home in everyday life

Pre-programmed scenarios bring a lot of convenience in everyday life. With the help of sensors, for example, roller shutters are lowered automatically in strong sunlight and the heating is regulated automatically. The early acquisition of smart home solutions suitable for the elderly already brings many small conveniences with it. Lights with motion and presence detectors, for example, protect residents from tripping hazards at night. House and apartment owners should therefore plan ahead and familiarise themselves with the installation of technical aids.

The smart home model apartment for seniors

The generational model apartment “plusraum” from Wolfsburg AG, which was set up in 2011, shows what such a smart home could look like especially for senior citizens: the smart home opens its entrance door automatically thanks to a chip card or door code and welcomes the resident via a loudspeaker announcement. After the door closes by itself, the purchases can be conveniently accommodated in the kitchen. The kitchen overhead cabinets can be brought down using a switch or remote control, as can the worktop with integrated stove and sink. Food can be conveniently prepared at the personally set height. A motion detector ensures that the stove switches itself off if no one has been working in the kitchen for ten minutes. So if you forget the pot on the stove, there is no longer any risk of fire.

Washing curtains is child's play with a height-adjustable curtain rail: the bar moves down at the push of a button or a crank, the curtain can be easily removed while standing. From there to the washing machine, which in turn is connected to the smartphone or tablet and reports any malfunction up to and including flooding with an alarm.

The sensor mat is also an invisible helper, similar to a doormat , which is simply placed in front of the senior-friendly bed with height adjustment. If you get up at night and step on the mat, the warm white night light in the bathroom is automatically switched on. But that's not all: As if by magic, the toilet moves to exactly the right height for the user who has just left the bed. Thanks to the "intelligent" mat. As a result, going to the toilet at night does not pose an accident risk and the body still remains in sleep mode.

The opening of the door can also be conveniently controlled in the smart home. As soon as the doorbell rings, the video camera at the entrance transmits the live image to a tablet PC that the user has in the house - a swipe of a finger is all it takes to open the front door.

When leaving the apartment, a single switch in the hallway switches off the lighting in the entire apartment and the sockets - only the refrigerator, telephone and washing machine remain on. The heating can also be integrated into the automatic control circuit, as can the alarm system. If windows are still open, the house control system reminds you to close them via loudspeaker.

How smart home helps people with dementia

Alpha gGmbH (Germany) has been operating a tried and tested smart home especially for people with dementia in Duisburg since 2007: the “outpatient community for people with dementia”. Up to seven people with dementia live there in the meanwhile three shared apartments: Each resident has his own room with bathroom and toilet, and the kitchen, dining and living rooms are shared. The special thing about it: In the shared apartments, technical assistance systems as well as small pets are part of everyday life and the entrance doors remain open. Motion detectors and magnetic contacts record - independent of person - the activities in the apartment and thus enable an independent life. As soon as there are deviations from the normal behaviour in a room, the supervisors are informed by telephone signal. For example, a resident's restlessness at night - a possible symptom for people with dementia - is thus recognised directly by the care service. The technology thus provides valuable information that the supervisors would otherwise not get. But it cannot replace the staff. Aline Wybranietz from Alpha gGmbH explains the advantage:

“The technology can improve the quality of life and care. However, it cannot and should not replace a donation. "

For ethical reasons, Alpha gGmbH attaches great importance to not installing a camera in the shared apartment. The residents should also not have to wear any technology on their bodies that they would perceive to be unfamiliar and invade their privacy. Every technical assistance is precisely adapted to the respective resident. Because all skills that the residents still have should be retained and not replaced by technology. 

"We want to offer the residents as much help as necessary and give them as much independence as possible,"

emphasises Aline Wybranietz.

The technicians are constantly developing the smart home and testing it in the shared apartments for user-friendliness and acceptance. They are currently researching dynamic lighting for people with dementia with Fraunhofer UMSICHT. A new lighting system is supposed to simulate the daily course of sunlight and automatically regulate the often disturbed day-night routine of the residents. They should be stimulated to activity in the morning by bright light and at dusk they should be attuned to the night with a light with a high red component. For the evaluation of the project, the employees of the nursing service record the data via app. Project manager André Reinecke, application development group at Fraunhofer Umsicht, explains the aim of the lighting project: "Perhaps if you have enough inner peace, that ultimately even less medication has to be taken. But the primary goal is to achieve a higher level of well being as a whole.

”This is how smart technology helps improve quality in everyday life”

Translated by Zeno Tonnis - Original Author: Natalya Gehnich-Stilter, original Article in german https://www.schoener-wohnen.de/architektur/38528-rtkl-smart-home-fuer-senioren