Real-Time Monitor System with RFID Localization for ... - IEEE Xplore

2013 IEEE 17th International Symposium on Consumer Electronics (ISCE)

Real-Time Monitor System with RFID Localization for Seniors Gene Eu Jan, Member, IEEE, Chi-Chia Sun, Member, IEEE, Lun-Ping Hung, Member, IEEE You-Siang Jan and Shu-Hui Weng Abstract--With the economic development and the trend towards fewer children, the aging population is becoming an issue but also a new market, hence long-term care for an aging population is important. In this paper, a system model based on the system database, RFID localization, digital surveillance and network transmission is proposed to identify the location of seniors, and return their current positions back to the remote monitoring care center (users). Once any physical conditions occur, the sensors on the resident seniors will return a warning message to the user and caregivers immediately, to enable them to grasp their physical condition and the treatment as soon as possible.

Fig. 1. The proposed real-time monitor and RFID localization for resident seniors.

Keywords: database RFID, Digital Surveillance, RealTime monitor.

II. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE Figure 1 shows the proposed real-time care system architecture for seniors. The RFID tag on seniors will pass the information back to the server regularly, such as body temperature, blood pressure and heart rate. If any physical conditions occur, they care system will pass the alerts to the medical staff as well as their families. Meanwhile, the location can also be identified through the RFID signal strength, then actives the nearest camera in order to send back real-time video surveillance for caregivers or their families. This platform architecture covers the home environment database, RFID positioning subsystem, digital monitoring subsystem and message transmission subsystem. Its overall architecture is shown in Figure 2.

I. INTRODUCTION The problem of aging population is getting worse in global, especially in Asia. According to the latest report from the Council for Economic Planning and Development, Taiwan will become a super-aging society in 2025; more than 20% of populations are older than 65 years, the rate in 2030 years will grow up to 24.4% [1]. World Health Organization also predicted that 2 billion people will be aged 60 and older by 2050 [2]. This issue will increase the load of national health insurance system, however, also contribute to the senior’s long-term care and home service needs as a new market (Home-based community care). This represents both challenges and opportunities. With the trend towards fewer children and medical advances, the increase ratio of the aging population will be inevitable. How to maintain better health and a happy life after retirement age will become important issues worthy of discussion and research. In this paper, a system model based on the system database, RFID localization [3-6], digital surveillance [7], network transmission is proposed to identify the location of seniors, and return their current positions back to the monitoring center. Once any physical conditions occur, the sensor will return a warning message to the care center immediately. Therefore, caregiver is able to grasp their physical condition and the treatment at the very first time. This paper is organized as follows: In Section 2, a brief introduction to the proposed real-time senior residence monitor system based on the RFID localization is given. The implementation is described in Section 3 in detail. Section 4 concludes this paper.

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Fig. 2. The platform architecture (RFID localization, System Database and Digital Surveillance).

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2013 IEEE 17th International Symposium on Consumer Electronics (ISCE)

III. IMPLEMENTATION A. System Database This database combines residence information system and functional RFID information system as shown in Figure 3, which includes their residence information such as floor planning, public facilities, and the RFID reader placement. Based on this information, we are able to calculate the location of the seniors. After the functional RFID information is received, monitor center will determine whether the body information is above the normal standards. If it does, system will send an alert to the caregivers.

Fig. 3. Functional RFID information, each RFID read can cover three rooms [8].

B. RFID Localization Figure 3 illustrates an example of RFID localization for positioning test, where RFID reader R13, R15, R35 and R37 are arranged at Room 512, 518, 522 and 528, respectively. Each RFID Reader’s signal strength can approximately cover three rooms, for example, the signal coverage of R35 is able to reach the Room 520, 522 and 526. When a senior with the RFID tag enters the room 522, both reader R35 and reader R37 will read it. Figure 4 shows the received signal strength of these two readers. It can be noticed that the signal is about 130dbm that is larger than the R37’s 110dbm. Since room 522 is covered by R15, R35 and R37, the location can be easily identified through the triangulation method [3].

Fig. 4. The received signal strength of reader R35 and reader R37 when the senior enters room 522 [8].

C. Digital Surveillance According to the size of senior residence, the data throughput of the proposed real-time monitoring system is also different. When the room number is larger, then the video surveillance data size is huge, and the control will be relatively complex, too. Therefore, we can reduce the video resolution (quality) or frame rate for basic monitoring in realtime for saving the network bandwidth. Once any physical conditions occur, the care center will active the nearest camera according to the RFID localization results to obtain a better monitoring quality immediately.

REFERENCE [1] [2] [3]

[4] [5]

[6]

IV. CONCLUSION Recently, smart care system for seniors has became a new issue due to the problem of aging population in global. In this paper, a smart care system based on the system database, RFID localization, digital surveillance, network transmission is presented. This system is able to identify the location of seniors once any physical conditions occur and return their current positions back to the monitoring center immediately. Furthermore, the proposed system also allows the care center or their family remote monitoring senior’s health conditions and feedback the information to the medical staff for at the very first time.

[7]

[8]

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