Can adapting the homes of older people and providing assistive technology pay its way?

Background: Adaptations and assistive technology (AT) have an important role in enabling older people to remain in their own homes. Objective: To measure the feasibility and cost of adaptations and AT, and the scope for these to substitute and supplement formal care. Design: Detailed design studies to benchmark the adaptability of 82 properties against the needs of seven notional users. Setting: Social rented housing sector. Main outcome measures: Measures of the adaptability of properties, costs of care, adaptations and AT, and relationships between these costs. Results: The adaptability of properties varies according to many design factors and the needs of occupiers. The most adaptable properties were ground floor flats and bungalows; the least were houses, maisonettes and flats in converted houses. Purpose-built sheltered properties were generally more adaptable than corresponding mainstream properties but the opposite was the case for bungalows. Adaptations and AT can substitute for and supplement formal care, and in most cases the initial investment in adaptations and AT is recouped through subsequently lower care costs within the average life expectancy of a user. Conclusion: Appropriately selected adaptations and AT can make a significant contribution to the provision of living environments which facilitate independence. They can both substitute for traditional formal care services and supplement these services in a cost-effective way.

The use of wireless data communication and body sensing devices to evaluate occupants' comfort in buildings

Physiological parameters measured by an embedded body sensor system were demonstrated to respond to changes of the air temperature in an office environment. The thermal parameters were monitored with the use of a wireless sensor system that made possible to turn any existing room into a field laboratory. Two human subjects were monitored over daily activities and at various steady-state thermal conditions when the air temperature of the room was altered from 22-23°C to 25-28°C. The subjects indicated their thermal feeling on questionnaires. The measured skin temperature was distributed close to the calculated mean skin temperature corresponding to the given activity level. The variation of Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) reflected the evaporative heat loss through the body surfaces and indicated whether sweating occurred on the subjects. Further investigations are needed to fully evaluate the influence of thermal and other factors on the output given by the investigated body sensor system.

Introducing assistive technology into the existing homes of older people: Feasibility, acceptability, costs and outcomes

We examined how far, and at what cost, the housing stock could be modified to accommodate the assistive technology (AT) necessary to enable older people to remain in their own homes. A multidisciplinary team devised seven hypothetical user profiles for 10 case study areas, with five local authorities and five housing associations in England and Wales. Each profile was considered at two times, five years apart, with the users' functional abilities deteriorating in between. In addition, in-depth interviews were carried out with a sample of 67 older people in the case study areas about their use and experience of a wide range of AT. The interviews showed the need to listen to older people and that they welcomed AT when it addressed a perceived need. The results showed that the extent of adaptation required of buildings to accommodate a user's needs varied greatly. It was also found that there was confusion about the terminology of AT, including the idea of the 'smart house'. The study shows that the adaptability of the housing depends on a range of factors and costs.

Introducing assistive technology into the homes of older people: Some lessons from the Netherlands - A case study

The authors have just completed a study of assistive technology (AT) and how it can be introduced into the existing homes of older people. As part of this empirical study some collaboration with the Netherlands took place for two reasons. First to learn about the use of assistive technology from a country where its creative use was well established and second to learn how older people influence policy. Two Dutch consultants helped the team and a short visit was paid to Eindhoven. As a result of this collaboration new ways of using AT were found and comparisons made with the policy and legislative background. In addition lessons were drawn about the involvement of older people.

Offering 802.11 MAC frame transport over multiband OFDM for consumer devices

A method to map all the variants of the IEEE 802.11 MAC frames into the Multiband OFDM based ECMA-368 Physical standard is proposed, without contravening the standard. The transportation of IEEE 802.11 MAC frames over ECMA-368 allows for the migration current of Wireless LAN applications towards a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) solution. This system benefits the Consumer Electronics Market as the high data-rate WPAN is capable of transporting broadcast-quality video while the same system can also transport existing applications available today, maintaining existing effort, products and backward-compatibility(1).

Therapeutic potential of computer to cerebral cortex implantable devices

In this article, an overview of some of the latest developments in the field of cerebral cortex to computer interfacing (CCCI) is given. This is posed in the more general context of Brain-Computer Interfaces in order to assess advantages and disadvantages. The emphasis is clearly placed on practical studies that have been undertaken and reported on, as opposed to those speculated, simulated or proposed as future projects. Related areas are discussed briefly only in the context of their contribution to the studies being undertaken. The area of focus is notably the use of invasive implant technology, where a connection is made directly with the cerebral cortex and/or nervous system. Tests and experimentation which do not involve human subjects are invariably carried out a priori to indicate the eventual possibilities before human subjects are themselves involved. Some of the more pertinent animal studies from this area are discussed. The paper goes on to describe human experimentation, in which neural implants have linked the human nervous system bidirectionally with technology and the internet. A view is taken as to the prospects for the future for CCCI, in terms of its broad therapeutic role.

Investigating novel point-select techniques for older people

As the number and proportion of older people worldwide continues to grow, robotic devices can play a role in helping older people continue to live independent and active lives. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and interactions that involve pointing to items and selecting them are becoming more common in assistive robots. The authors are currently working on a project investigating techniques to improve point-select interactions for older people. In particular, the project studies how older people respond to expanding and moving targets. The research is ongoing, and this paper describes the methods that will be used in upcoming experiments.

Mixed initial-boundary value problem in particle modeling of microelectronic devices

The Boltzmann equation in presence of boundary and initial conditions, which describes the general case of carrier transport in microelectronic devices is analysed in terms of Monte Carlo theory. The classical Ensemble Monte Carlo algorithm which has been devised by merely phenomenological considerations of the initial and boundary carrier contributions is now derived in a formal way. The approach allows to suggest a set of event-biasing algorithms for statistical enhancement as an alternative of the population control technique, which is virtually the only algorithm currently used in particle simulators. The scheme of the self-consistent coupling of Boltzmann and Poisson equation is considered for the case of weighted particles. It is shown that particles survive the successive iteration steps.

A parallel convolutional coder including embedded puncturing with application to consumer devices

As consumers demand more functionality) from their electronic devices and manufacturers supply the demand then electrical power and clock requirements tend to increase, however reassessing system architecture can fortunately lead to suitable counter reductions. To maintain low clock rates and therefore reduce electrical power, this paper presents a parallel convolutional coder for the transmit side in many wireless consumer devices. The coder accepts a parallel data input and directly computes punctured convolutional codes without the need for a separate puncturing operation while the coded bits are available at the output of the coder in a parallel fashion. Also as the computation is in parallel then the coder can be clocked at 7 times slower than the conventional shift-register based convolutional coder (using DVB 7/8 rate). The presented coder is directly relevant to the design of modern low-power consumer devices