MedPhone: An Older Adult Friendly Phone that Assist in Independent Living

1. MedPhone: An Older Adult Friendly Phone that Assist in Independent Living Gary Tyson, Frank Sposaro, David Maddux, Venkata Abhiram, Lisa BlakelyFlorida State University Department of Computer Science Purpose Fall Monitoring Application The medPhone is a personal management system for monitoring medical conditions and communicating when help is needed. It combines common smart phone technology along with specialized medical monitoring applications to provide safer independent living. Data from the accelerometer is evaluated with several threshold based algorithms and position data to determine a fall. The threshold is adaptive based on user provided parameters such as: height, weight, and level of activity. Technology Suspected Fall Break lower thresholdFree Fall Break upper threshold Ground Impact Long LieLying Immobile • Software • The phone runs an Android Based Operating System. Android is open source which provides us the ability to take complete control of the phone’s functionality. This gives us the ability to upload our application framework to any mobile phone compatible with the Android software stack. • Hardware • Presently, our prototype is running on the G1 Dream manufactured by HTC. This is the first of several Android enabled phones that scheduled to be released in the near future by multiple service providers. • Features • Current • Touch Screen • GPS • Tri-Axis Accelerometer • BlueTooth • WiFi • 3G and Edge Connections • Camera Upper Threshold Long Lie Lower Threshold Wandering Application Data from the integrated GPS is gathered. When location is determined to be outside acceptable range an alert is raised. GPS can be used to find exact location of person. In the case where GPS signal is lost, studies have proven that last know position within minutes is sufficient for locating missing person. • Dynamic Parameters • Adjustable Range • Learn Movement Patterns • Recovery Time • High Alert Zones • Future • Altimeter • Thermometer • Gyroscope • Light Sensors • Several Cameras • CO Sensor Social Network Monitoring Modern cell phones contain a contact list. The Med Phone system can first ask the user if everything is ok in the case of an abnormality. If no response the Med Phone can directly contact the user’s social network (family/friends) before issuing a costly alert to the authorities. Cell Phone Sales The sale of cellular phones has significantly increased over the past decade. The trend has been a world wide phenomena. Current Market Size 2009 +1 Billion Sales Last Year Smart Phones +75 % Source: Gartner