Proceedings of the 2009 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design
Telecare System Using RF Communication Technology in Elderly Center Ching-Lung Lin1,2 , Lin-Song Weng3 , Hsueh-Hsien Chang4 , and Ching-Feng Lin2 1. Dept. of Senior Citizen Service Management, Ming Hsin University of Science and Technology, Hsinchu, Taiwan. 2. Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Ming Hsin University of Science and Technology, Hsinchu, Taiwan. 3. Dept. of Electronics Engineering, Ming Hsin University of Science and Technology, Hsinchu, Taiwan. 4. Dept. of Electronic Engineering, Jin Wen University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Abstract This paper combines the ZigBee wireless communication system with the internet system to be the structure of Telecare System. The system can serve the careless elders, the disable and the whom live in elderly center, Telecare System not only reduces the service manpower and the cost but also increases the care quality and service efficiency. The Telecare System consists of four devices, which are Monitoring Control Device (MCD), Monitoring Control Data Sharing (MCDS), Remote Monitoring System (RMS) and Center Telecare System (CTS). The ZigBee of Radiation Frequency and the internet communication are the communication system to transfer service data from devices to Telecare System. Keywords: ZigBee, Telecare System, Internet.
1. Introduction Due to the progress of technology and medicine, the age of human being is more and more, with the population into the elder period. According to the estimation conducted by garverment in Taiwan for economic planning and development, the ratio of our elder population older than sixty five years old had reached the 7% of total population from Nov. 1993 which is advanced age society. The ratio of our elder population older than sixty five years old had reached the 10% of total population from 2006. The ratio of elder population will gradually increase every year. The ratio of our elder population older than sixty five years old will reach the 14% of total population from 2012. The ratio of elder population is followed by Japan for Taiwan. The home of elder population in the future is elder center or hospital depending on the fact of change for advanced age society and life habit. It is a big problem to take care elder population under limited manpower and social cost. It is a good way to use technology and medical resources to solve the
problem of advanced age. In recent year with the rapid progress of technology, particularly in the upgrade and popularity of computer, internet and wireless communication, the daily life has been changed little by little. To solve the related problems of healthy care for elderly, the telecare system can be developed to use combination of positioning technology and wireless communication technology [1-2]. Telecare System can apply to the medical laboratory, nursing home, home instead senior care and normal home. The company of telecommunications, security and logistics can be attracted to join this work to provide more service, however it mostly focuses on medical healthy care. The plan of telecare till now has three categories: centralized institution, community and disperse. The details are as table 1 [1]. 1 .To integrate with medicine and service team using the support of technology to provide the healthy care for body and mind, and then decrease effectively the frequency in hospital and promote the entire caring quality of institution. 2. Community telecare system applies various community resource and combination of professional and localized service to provide various healthy and life service. People who live in their own familiar community can get convenient service. 3. Home telecare system focuses on the healthy demand of human. The excellent home healthy management service is provided by professional nursing staff using communication technologies and electric medical equipment to integrate with professional service and multiple local resources [1]. Table 1.
Communify Telecare
978-1-4244-3535-7/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE
444
Object and content of telecare system Service purpose Hypertension Diabetes Slight Disabled Slight Dementia Elderly Living Alone
Service center Health convenience store in community Video health education and consultation Action position security The medicine matter security
Home Telecare
Instirution Telecare
Hypertension Diabetes Slight/Moderate Disabled Slight Dementia Chronic vigorous sickness The guest of nurses the family The professional of nurse
serves The living resource introduction The long-distance physiology measures The long-distance health education The guest visit service The living resource introduction Emergency handle Distance consultation The long-distance physiology measures Video visit service The long-distance health education guide The medicine matter security serves
This model is using information technology to improve long-term service quality and to build speedily community long-term service system. The telecare apply electronic communication and information technology to provide medical service while the medical or professional persons are unable to be at the same location with patients. Except for taking care of elderly person, it also includes healthy improvement, the prevention of illness and incidents, personnel re-education, the hygienic education and consult between patients and families and the management of each case and the related administrative affair. The telecare can be convenient for patients to decrease the number of going to hospital and avoid the complication due to long-term staying at hospital, and promote effective application of medical treatment resources. Due to the cost of telecare medical system is very expensive and can be only supported and established by large-scale hospital or the department of health. This paper proposes a telecare system using RF communication technology and a basic framework of caring and medicine for elder except for linking to hospitals. This system also applies to the followings: 1. Centralized institution caring system 2. Community home caring system 3. Distributed home caring system The design of this system considers the cost of establishment for suppliers and the expense for users. The system will substantially decrease the waste of social welfare and improve the service quality of caring. However, medical service is not for all the elders.
2. System Control Method The wireless communication technology is successful for telecare system because of Internet, MEMS and nano-integrated circuits. The internet is developed actively to establish a complete network of information and communication using various wireless communication systems. This network is safety and convenient for daily life of human being [3-4].
2.1. Internet Framework The data and instructions are transmitted between Monitoring Control Device and Remote Monitoring System by Radio Frequency (RF). The data and instructions are transmitted between Remote Monitoring System and center telecare system by local area network or wireless local area network. Figure 1 shows the structure of Center Telecare System [5-6].
Figure 1.
The structure of CTS.
2.2. ZigBee wireless transmission system ZigBee wireless transmission system is followed by IEEE standard 802.15.4 and it is a new standard for a suite of high level communication protocols using small, low-power, two-way digital radios and so on. The distance of transmission is approximately 10 meters and the data rate at 2.4GHz is 250Kbps. Table 2 shows the characteristics of 868/915MHz. ZigBee technology is a wireless transmission internet by node to node series connections. It applies to low speed, low power and short distance. It can control air conditioner, lighting, fire extinguisher and any home appliance for whole area as table 2 using single remote controller or communication unit. Table 2. The comparison of 2.4GHz and 868/915MHz Frequency Range (Area) Methods Speed Distance Channel
2.4GHz
868 MHz
915 MHz
2400~2483.5 (Global) QPSK 250kbps 0~100m 16
868~868.6 (Europe) BPSK 20kbps 0~100m 1
902~928 (America) BPSK 40kbps 0~100m 10
The most speed of ZigBee is 128 kbps. The system memory is required less than 32 kbytes (8 bits controller). It will take more than 30 ms for increasing each point. ZigBee system has long battery life by controlling, connection, exchange information and shutdown system for waiting status. The characteristics of ZigBee technology are as
445
following: 1. Power saving: low transmission speed, low transmission data quantity, short-time between transmission and receiving. ZigBee is waiting mode while it is non-operation mode. The starting time from waiting is only 15ms and the searching time is 30ms. Sometime, the battery life of ZigBee can be 6 months to two years. 2. High reliability: The MAC of ZigBee is talk-when-ready function. The system will transfer immediately when data is required. Every data will be confirmed by receiver and the receiver will feed back a message. There will be a collision if there is not any message. The data will be sent again to confirm data transmission. 3. High expansibility: There are 255 network points for a Zigbee network. 254 network points is for slave, only one point is for master. There will be 6500 network points if using network coordinator. The network point will be gradually expanded if network coordinator is connected by each other.
2.3. Artificial Intelligence In the middle of the 20th century, a handful of scientists began a new approach to building intelligent machines, based on recent discoveries in neurology, a new mathematical theory of information, an understanding of control and stability called cybernetics, and above all, by the invention of the digital computer, a machine based on the abstract essence of mathematical reasoning [7]-[10]. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science which aims to create it [11]. The field was founded on the claim that a central property of human beings, intelligence can be so precisely described that it can be simulated by a machine. Artificial intelligence has become an essential part of the technology industry, providing the heavy lifting for many of the most difficult problems in computer science. Figure 2 shows fundamental elements of artificial intelligence. It includes deduction, reasoning, problem solving, knowledge representation, planning, learning, nature language processing, motion and manipulation, perception, creativity, and etc. This paper employs the analysis of anticipation of neural networks in AI. The data of elders and patients is built in knowledge base. It includes physiological parameters, e.g. blood pressure, number of heartbeat, blood sugar, and etc., a route of motion in hospital, daily schedule, and etc. To forecast and trace any problems for the elder or patient, the data are trained by the neural networks. The elderly center can forecast and understand situations for the elders or patients every time and everywhere.
Figure 2.
The elements of artificial intelligence.
3. Experiments This paper proposes a simple and convenient telecare system. The system is described as bellows: 1. Center Telecare System (CTS). 2. Remote Monitoring System (RMS). 3. Monitoring Control Data Searching (MCDS). 4. Monitoring Control Device (MCD). The data are stored in center telcare system using local network, internet and wireless network for every telecare system. Figure 3 shows the illustration for MCDS of CTS.
Figure 3. The illustration for MCDS of CTS. A rule of safety and the monitoring of remote human nature compose telecare system. Telecare system is the main system of remote monitoring system. This telecare system will alarm to patients whom are cared when patients have any accident according to the moving route and the regulation of safety. Care worker will care the patients immediately.
3.1. Monitoring Control Device Figure 4 and 5 show the monitoring control device. It is a controller with programmable and wireless communication. The signal of location and moving route for patients will be sent to MCDS by wireless communication internet. The data will be processed and sent to CTS to setup database, and shows to the care worker. The data is provided to understand the situation and safety of patients for the basic data of care worker.
446
patient or elder with the concentric circles. ZigBee MCDS sends these data from each MCDS to system. The correct position of patients or elders is calculated and processed to provide information to CTS.
Figure 4.
The diagram of transmitter.
Figure 7. The illustration of triangle position
3.3. Remote Monitoring System Figure 5.
The diagram of receiver.
Figure 6 shows the function flowchart of MCD. The data of final location and series number of patients will be keyed into MCDS. The new data for moving route will be operated after processing to monitor the patients. During the operation, the information of patients will be updated any time. The data will be sent to the CTS and RMS for the database.
Figure 8 shows a framework of RMS. The RMS uses internet to present the data of CTS. The patient or elder can be monitored by internet for care worker and the families of elder or patient. The care worker can notify immediately families of when the elder or patient is dangerous. The system does not need more extra expensive equipments and complicated system. The system can monitor the elder or patient using internet for any time and where [11-13].
Figure 8. The illustration of RMS
3.4. Center Telecare System
Figure 6.
The flowchart of MCDS.
3.2. Monitoring Control Data Searching MCDS is a set of framework consisting of many MCDS. Because one MCDS or two MCDS can be interfered with other signals, it is unable to determine accurately location. Figure 7 shows that triangle positioning method can be used to reduce the error and avoid interference. The method can locate the correct position of patients or elders. Each MCDS scans regularly the ID and signals of
CTS are composed of MCDS and RMS. The positioning data of patients or elders which are collected by MCDS depending on the ID and Signals can decide the location of patients of elders. RMS will transfer information to care workers and families of patients or elders. Figure 9 shows the platform of software of telecare system. Table 3 shows the initial safety time rule for elders. The individual safety time is learned by CTS according to the daily schedule of normal elders, habitual behavior of this elder and an accidental record of this elder. This system provides a decision making using artificial intelligence to learn and revise the suggestion rule for human nature.
447
Table 3. The initial safety time rule table for elder Location
Initial Safety Time (min.)
Bedroom
420
Bathroom
60
Living room
120
Dining hall
60
Leisuring
180
3. Results CTS is a system that focuses on monitoring of moving route of elders or patients and staying unusually for a long time to avoid any accidence. The elders can be sent to hospital immediately if there is any accidence. To verify the function of this system; for example, the detection of moving route and the alarm of staying for a long time, there are three cases for the experiments in this paper.
4.1. Case study 1
Figure 9.
The screen map of telecare system.
Figure 10 shows the flowchart of CTS. The time, living map of elder or patient and safety suggestion rule are entered into the system from begin for the data base. MCDS will read ID and signals for each elders or patients. The route data will be built from CTS after the ID data is processed. The location of elders or patients will be found after the data are loaded. These locations will be sent to the monitoring program after comparing with the data from MCDS and the map coordinates. The program will go to search for the elders or patients if there is no signal in monitoring area. The program will announce alarm to the care workers if the program still has no results. The position and time of elders or patients will be compared with that of safety suggestion rule after data are recorded. The position and time will be understood if they are coincidence with safety suggestion rule or not. The system will alarm to care workers to understand what is happened if the elder is unusually stay for a long time.
Case study 1 is only one of elders goes out the area of monitoring in the screen for groups. Figure 11 shows the CTS can not detect any ID and signal from one of elders and then an abnormal alarm will be displayed to notify the care workers. Figure 12 shows the screen of a normal condition.
Figure 11. The state of a group when one elder leaves.
Figure 12.
The normal state for a group.
4.2. Case study 2 Case study 2 is the accidental situation for staying alone in the bathroom for a long time. Figure 13 shows the accident alarm is ON, because MR Lin pushed energency bottem of his MCD for help in the bathroom. That is not the signal for staying long time in the bathroom. The care workers will go to take care for this elder to avoid any accident not to notify care workers by elder himself.
Figure 10.
The flowchart of CTS.
448
bellows: 1. The control unit and hardware of this system is simple and popular. 2. The single chip is a programmable unit. The software has high compatibility. The system is easy to use in the elderly center or home. 3. The data of work and rest for elders from TCS will be provided to elder’s doctor to improve and reduce the probability of illness for elders.
References
Figure 13. The accidental situation of an elder staying bathroom for a long time .
4.3. Case study 3 Case study 3 is a record table for recording work and rest of one elder for a whole day. Table 4 shows a record for recording work and rest of one elder for whole day. The data will be recorded by MCDS to provide the data to elder’s doctor for a reference. The data can be provided to improve abnormal work and rest of elders and reduce the illness for elders. Table 4. An individual record of MR Lin Code
Name
State
100014987
MR Lin
Normal
100014987
MR Lin
Normal
100014987
MR Lin
Normal
100014987
MR Lin
Normal
100014987
MR Lin
Normal
100014987
MR Lin
Normal
100014987
MR Lin
Normal
100014987
MR Lin
Normal
100014987
MR Lin
Normal
100014987
MR Lin
Normal
100014987
MR Lin
Normal
100014987
MR Lin
Normal
100014987
MR Lin
Normal
100014987
MR Lin
Accident
100014987
MR Lin
Normal
5.
Time 2008/08/24 10:00 2008/0824 11:05 2008/08/24 11:10 2008/0824 11:14 2008/08/24 11:30 2008/0824 12:20 2008/08/24 12:22 2008/0824 13:30 2008/08/24 13:35 2008/0824 14:20 2008/08/24 14:23 2008/0824 14:25 2008/08/24 14:30 2008/0824 17:05 2008/08/24 17:10 2008/0824 18:15 2008/08/24 18:22 2008/0824 20:02 2008/08/24 21:07 2008/0824 21:37 2008/08/24 21:40 2008/0825 01:10 2008/08/25 01:16 2008/08/25 01:19 2008/08/25 01:22 2008/08/25 05:40 2008/08/25 05:44 2008/08/25 05:50 2008/08/25 05:55 2008/08/25 09:30
Position Leisuring Bathroom Dining hall Living room Bedroom Bathroom Leisuring Dining hall Living room Bathroom Bedroom Bathroom Bedroom Bathroom Leisuring
[1] Ruffing-Rahal, M. A., “Rationale and design for health promotion with older adults”, Public Health Nursing, vol. 8, pp. 258-263 [2] http://doh.telecare.com.tw/takecareservice3.aspx [3] Michael Ingram, “Implementing a remote patient self-monitoring system to enhance the efficiency of GP services — the Surgery Pod”, Telecare 2007, U.K., 2007 [4] Dan Lingard, “I don’t want your telecare—this is what I want....please!”, Telecare 2007, U.K., 2007 [5] R. Casas, A´ . Marco, I. Plaza, Y. Garrido and J. Falco, “ZigBee-based alarm system for pervasive healthcare in rural areas”, IET Commun., 2008, 2, (2), pp. 208–214 [6] E. Monto´ n, J.F. Hernandez, J.M. Blasco, T. Herve´ , J. Micallef, I. Grech, A. Brincat and V. Traver, “Body area network for wireless patient monitoring”, IET Commun., 2008, 2, (2), pp. 215–222 [7] http://lingb28.myweb.hinet.net/b9091199/AI.htm [8] C.L. Lin, Y.C. Hwang, C.F. Lin, J.W. Sun, Y.F. Jhang and M.Y. Hsieh, ” Hybrid Strategies of Saving Power in Campus”, The 29th ROC Symposium on Electrical Power Engineering, Taiwan, 5-6 Dec. 2008, pp. 2409-2413 [9] Martin JB, "The integration of neurology, psychiatry, and neuroscience in the 21st century". The American journal of psychiatry 159 (5), U.S.A., May 2002, pp. 695–704 [10] P. McCorduck, Machines Who Think, 2nd ed., Natick, MA: A. K. Peters, Ltd., 2004. [11] J. McCarthy, M. Minsky, N. Rochester, C. Shannon, A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, 1955. [12] C.L. Lin, Y.F. Jhang and J.W. Sun, ” The Telecare System by Using RF Communication Technology”, 2008 Workshop on Consumer Electronics, Taiwan, 5 Dec. 2008, pp. 478-484 [13] C.L. Lin, Y.C. Hwang, C.F. Lin, C.H. Yeh, S.R. Chiou and Y.F. Jhang, ”Using Internet Network and Coded Radio Frequency Control System for Saving Power Energy of the Campus”, The 28th ROC Symposium on Electrical Power Engineering, Taiwan, 7-8 Dec. 2007, pp. D2.5-1-5
Conclusions
This paper proposes a telecare system for the work and rest of elders and moving route of elders. The wireless internet technology is applied to take care for elders in the elderly center to record the data of moving route and work and rest. The system is a real time monitoring system for elders. The data will be provided to elder’s doctor to improve abnormal work and rest of elders and reduce the probability of illness for elders. The contribution of this paper is as
449
