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

 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.

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L-mode

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2: Not fine

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“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

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.

REFERENCE

Jun Sasaki, Takashi Mitsuishi and Yutaka Funyu, 2001. A

New Concept and Configuration Method of Life Zone

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Jun Sasaki, Takushi Nakano, Takashi Abe and Yutaka

Funyu, 2002. A Concept of Life-Zone Network for a

High-aged Society, 12th European-Japanese

Conference on Information Modeling and Knowledge

Bases.

Mutsuko Yamaki, 2004. Consciousness of users about

emergency call system of the elderly, and the problem

of management, Japanese Journal of Social Service

and Informatics, Vol.1, pp.56-67.

Zoujirushi, Japan. Mimamori Hot Line, URL http://

www.mimamori.net

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Journal of Social Service and Informatics, Vol.1,

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Yonemoto and Yutaka Funyu, 2006. Development and

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URL http://internet.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/event/

2005/06/15/8042.html.

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