Wireless Care for Elderly and Disabled People
From: IST Results - 09/15/2004

Giving elderly and disabled people the means to contact carers in case of
emergency while allowing carers to constantly know where their patients are
is the reason behind LOCOMOTION, an IST project that combines global
positioning system (GPS) technology with standard mobile phones. The GPS
provides accuracy to about 50 meters depending on where the user is, enabling
carers to precisely pinpoint users' location if they get in trouble; project
coordinator Antonio Linares Torres at Indra Sistemas in Spain notes that
LOCOMOTION facilitates rapid user location and response to emergencies.
"LOCOMOTION offers users greater independence and mobility by helping the
elderly and people who suffer memory loss overcome their fear of leaving the
house and becoming lost," he asserts. Carers can remotely monitor patients
via a call center that manages interaction with users' handhelds through
software that features automatic calling capabilities to periodically check
up on users' status. The call center's infrastructure requirements are low
because the application is Web-based, while the mobile devices themselves
need little modification, which contributes to LOCOMOTION's
cost-effectiveness. The system can also establish "safety zones" specific to
individual users, and alert the call center when users go outside those
areas. Perhaps the most critical detail of LOCOMOTION is its ease of use: The
system is currently deployed in two prototypes, one of which is a standard
phone equipped with location awareness, while the other is a mobile tracking
device that puts users in touch with the call center. 

http://istresults.cordis.lu/index.cfm/section/news/tpl/article/BrowsingType/Features/ID/69943