EXPERIMENTS OF LIFE MONITORING SYSTEMS FOR
ELDERLY PEOPLE LIVING IN RURAL AREAS
Jun Sasaki, KeizoYamada, Michiru Tanaka and Yutaka Funyu
Faculty of Software & Information Science, Iwate Prefectural University, Sugo, Takizawa, Iwate, Japan
Keywords: Life monitoring system, Healthcare, Information system, Communication network.
Abstract: The authors’ project has been developing some life monitoring systems for elderly people living alone in
rural areas. The developments and experiments of the life monitoring systems were carried out for Kawai
village, Shiwa town and Tono city at Iwate prefecture in Japan. Based on these experiences, this work
describes the information obtained and the issues which need to be resolved in the construction of a useful
and successful life monitoring system.
1 INTRODUCTION
Computers and Internet technology are now used in
businesses, governments and other enterprises
worldwide. However, there are still many rural areas
where elderly people are living without the
information services provided by computers and the
Internet. In these rural areas, there are many social
problems such as low birth rate, aging and a
declining population. The aim of our research is to
provide useful but low cost information systems to
ensure a safe, secure and comfortable life for elderly
people in such rural areas.
We have proposed the concept of a Life Zone
Network (LZN) (Sasaki et al, 2001, 2002), which is
a closed network and makes the sharing of
information on clients’ medical and health
conditions between organizations possible.
Based on this concept, we proposed a new
concept of Life-Support Network (LSN) (Sasaki et
al, 2008). After discussion on the LSN concept, we
are proposing that the following services should be
realized there:
(1) Information sharing using integrated
management of clients’ healthcare data and
regional Intranet (CATV network, VPN etc.).
(2) Implementing cooperative relationships among
hospitals, clinics and healthcare/welfare
facilities.
(3) Provide a monitoring service for elderly people
who lives alone.
(4) Provide a remote healthcare service.
(5) The use of an emergency information system.
(6) The use of informal resources provided by
regional volunteers or remote living families.
This paper shows our developed systems and its
experimental results for three deferent rural areas in
Iwate Prefecture in Japan. In addition, the
information obtained and future issues which would
allow the construction of a useful and successful life
monitoring systems are discussed.
2 EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEMS
FOR LIFE MONITORING
2.1 Kawai Village
In order to ensure the safety of elderly people living
alone in Kawai village, an emergency call system
was introduced by governmental office. However,
there is a problem in that the system is not available
in an emergency if the elderly person is lying down
and cannot operate the system (Yamaki, 2004).
There are other methods available such as the life-
condition monitoring system, which can be used in
remote places by using a kettle or a door with a
sensor and a telecommunication function
(Zoujirushi, Japan). Currently, such positive-type
systems tend to be difficult to expand because there
are problems with error actions and resistance from
elderly people due to privacy concerns.
430
Sasaki J., Yamada K., Tanaka M. and Funyu Y. (2009).
EXPERIMENTS OF LIFE MONITORING SYSTEMS FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE LIVING IN RURAL AREAS.
In Proceedings of the International Conference on Health Informatics, pages 430-433
DOI: 10.5220/0001534404300433
Copyright
c
SciTePress
On the other hand, there are examples of active-
type systems, which provide monitoring services for
elderly people and allow health information to be
sent by the elderly themselves.
One of our projects has been the development and
management of an active-type monitoring system
called “Mimamori Network System” (Ogawa, 2004
and Yoneda et al, 2006) in Kawai village, where
40% of people are over 65 years old.
The Kawai project developed an active-type,
monitoring system for elderly people as a Web
application (AP) using information communication
technology. The Web AP server is located in Iwate
Prefectural University, the terminal for the elderly is
an L-mode telephone produced by NTT East Ltd.,
and the terminal for the Social Welfare Centre
(SWC) is a personal computer (PC).
Figure 1 shows examples of the system display
for the elderly. The elderly person inputs his/her
information on their health condition using a three-
step push button on the L-mode telephone every
morning. The information is sent via the Internet to
the AP server and the SWC confirms it on the Web
browser of the client PC. We designed the human
interface, for example color coordination and button
distribution on the display, to ensure easy operation
for elderly people.
For ease of management, system functions have
been added gradually. These added functions
include: daily message sending from the SWC to the
elderly person, presentation and self confirmation of
the monthly sending information history and a
display for mobile phones. Furthermore, a button for
“I want to talk”, schedule information for the next
three days and sending e-mail to mobile phones of
watching-over volunteers and remote living families
have been included.
9/13()
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ワンタッチ
ワンタッチ
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としら した
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Telephone
Top page
1: Fine
2: Not fine
3: Bad
“I have informed you are not fine.”
“I have informed you are fine.”
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L-mode
Telephone
Top page
1: Fine
2: Not fine
3: Bad
“I have informed you are not fine.”
“I have informed you are fine.”
Figure 1: Life monitoring system in Kawai village.
As a result of the system management from
September 2004 to May 2008 (3 years and 9
months), over 90% of users did not forget to send
their information and confirmation of their safety
was 100%.
Though, the L-mode service is announced to be
finished in 2010 by NTT East Ltd. because of its
management reason.
2.2 Shiwa Town
In the 2006 fiscal year, our project carried out the
development and field testing of a new life
monitoring system in Shiwa town.
In this system in Shiwa town, a television
terminal is used instead of the L-mode telephone,
because L-mode service is scheduled to stop in
2010, and every resident of Shiwa town has a
television. In order to use the system, a set-top box
(STB) called “Raku Vision”, produced by NEC
Magnus Communications Ltd., is needed to connect
between the Intranet and the television (NEC
Magnus Communication, Japan) .
In using this system, when a person turns the TV
on, the divided display, shown in Figure 2 (a)
appears at first, where the left side is the usual TV
Figure 2(a): Sample of the TV display (selecting
condition).
Figure 2(b): Sample of the TV display (after selecting
condition).
Have a nice da
y
Close
TV program Web Top Page
I am fine
I am not so fine
Please call me
I will be absent
tomorrow
EXPERIMENTS OF LIFE MONITORING SYSTEMS FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE LIVING IN RURAL AREAS
431
display and the right side is a Web browser. The
Web browser has four buttons:
(1): My condition is fine.
(2): My condition is not so fine.
(3): I will be absent tomorrow.
(4): Please call me.
The user can easily select a button using the remote
control device of the STB. After the user selects
his/her current condition, the Web page displays a
confirmation message as shown in Figure 2(b). After
the user presses the close button, the TV screen
reverts to display the usual broadcast program. The
information selected by the user is transmitted to the
system manager and/or remote living families as
Intranet data for display on a PC and a text message
for display on a mobile phone.
If the user does not use the system to report their
condition in the morning, the contact life-supporter
(home helper, care provider, family member,
neighbour, etc.) calls him/her to confirm their
condition.
Following the experimental period, we visited
Shiwa town and obtained the users’ opinions on the
system by way of discussion and a survey
questionnaire.
The experiment was carried out from December
18th 2006 to February 9th 2007. We selected and
requested the participation of three people (male
aged 80, female aged 82, and female aged 76
(average age: 78.5 years)), who were living alone in
Shiwa, to use the life monitoring system. The users
sent information on their condition through the
system every day by using the remote control device
of the STB.
The operability of the life monitoring system was
described by two home users as “comprehensible”
and by one female home user as
“incomprehensible.” Two users said that the TV
screen display was easy to understand and they
hoped to continue using it. The system managers
responded that they were able to operate the system.
Family users living apart from the home users felt a
“feeling of safety” regarding the home users.
We confirmed that users could use the system
with little difficulty and that the life supporters and
their families experienced a feeling of safety when
checking the information sent by the user every day
using a text message on a mobile phone and web
page input data.
Other opinions on the life monitoring system
were as follows:
- The response of the STB was a little slow.
- A period of adjustment to the operation was
necessary in order to use it easily.
- An emergency call function was very important
and necessary.
Which organizations will be responsible and
optimal management in the case of a lack of safety
information are issues which remain to be resolved.
2.3 Tono City
In the 2007 fiscal year, our project designed a whole
LSN and developed some components of the LSN
for field testing in Tono city. The concept of the
LSN service consisted of child-rearing, healthcare
and elderly life support.
We developed the elderly life support system
which had a send function for daily safety
information, an information site on EOL (end of
life) and a support function for construction of a
Web page for use by the elderly. In the send
function of daily safety information, we developed
this so that the information was sent using a
Nintendo “Wii” (a game terminal), a mobile phone
or a PC. We also carried out field testing, an
example of the display is shown in Figure 3(a), (b).
Figure 3(a): Example of the send function display on
safety information for Tono city (in the case of using
Nintendo “Wii”).
Figure 3(b): Example of the send function display on
safety information for Tono city (in the case of using
mobile phone).
I am fine
Not so
Bad
Please inform your
condition
How are you?
1.Fine.
2.Not so fine.
3.Bad.
Have a nice day.
HEALTHINF 2009 - International Conference on Health Informatics
432
The safety information could be sent to watching-
over people such as neighbours, families and related
formal (governmental) officers by e-mail on a
mobile phone. As multiple people could be watching
over an elderly person, the workload of formal
officers decreased even when the number of elderly
people was high.
We carried out field tests on the newly developed
life monitoring system from December 17
th, 2007
to February 22
nd, 2008. Two elderly used the “Wii”
and another two elderly people used mobile phones
to use the daily safety information sending system.
The average age of the four participants was 79. The
nine monitors were either family or relatives.
Good results on sending health information were
obtained from the elderly people using the “Wii”
system. However, the elderly had to undergo a short
training program before using the “Wii” remote
controller. On the other hand, the mobile phone was
not considered user-friendly because users only
recognized that the phone could be used as a
telephone. There were also problems in that the
system might cause some worry in the monitors
when the elderly did not send their safety
information.
3 DISCUSSIONS
From these findings, it is considered that the service
in Kawai village was the most practical and
successful. The factors leading to this success were:
(1) In Kawai village, as the population density was
very low and the ratio of elderly people was
very high, the need to watch over these elderly
people was very strong.
(2) The SWC in Kawai village was very active and
provided enough services such as sending
different messages daily to the elderly. The
responsible organization was clearly the SWC.
(3) The purpose of the service was to prevent
solitary death.
(4) The monitoring system for the elderly people of
Kawai village was developed by the Spiral
Model, where functions were added gradually
according to the requirement of the users.
In the case of Shiwa town and Tono city, each
service for providers and users was developed
rapidly, and we can not say whether this was
satisfactory. Although the system was developed
and evaluated in a short time, it can be used as a
function in an information system. If the needs of
residents could be surveyed and services focused
then sufficient, successful services could be
provided in these areas.
4 CONCLUSIONS
This paper introduces a concept of the LSN for
elderly people living in rural areas to support their
health, safety and comfort. Then, experimental
systems related to the main functions of the LSN
were introduced including a life monitoring system
for the elderly for Kawai village, Shiwa town and
Tono city in Iwate prefecture. Based on those
experimental results, we describe the information
obtained and some of the issues which need to be
solved in the future to construct a useful life
monitoring system for rural areas.
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