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from the I've-fallen-and-I-can't-get-up dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
The team of researchers at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), in collaboration with the Department of Geriatrics at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU), are developing a system that monitors the health conditions of the elderly. The system consists of several sensors and a controller—a portable device on a neck strap—that automatically calls for help in the time of need.
According to Eurostat, almost one in five persons in the European Union (EU) is aged 65 or over (19.4 percent). This represents a population of nearly 100 million people. It is estimated that by 2070 the number will reach 29 percent. Therefore, the need for technologies, which provide nonintrusive monitoring of the health of the increasing amount of population, are constantly growing.
"With this system, the elderly can feel at peace and safe at home. They don't need constant supervision. The developed technology is well suited for clinical treatment and can also be implemented in various geriatric institutions," says Egidijus Kazanavicius, a professor at the KTU Faculty of Informatics, one of the authors of the technology.
The system is consisting of stationary sensors mounted indoors and a small wearable 3-5 cm high device. It is constantly monitoring the health conditions and body position of a person. When it senses that the person has possibly collapsed, the system sends a signal to those listed as emergency contacts.
"We aimed to create a system that would record the patient's position, body posture, and movement indoors. If something goes wrong, the person falls, or any other problem occurs, the controller will record the patient's collapse and the alarm will automatically be transmitted," explains Prof Kazanavicius, the Director at KTU Centre of Real-Time Computer Systems.
The controller with the integrated Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) module identifies the location of a person as accurately as one meter. The system was primarily designed for the installation in medical facilities, but now it can be implemented at home.
"Having access to the Internet is required but not a necessity. Emergency calls and notifications can also be sent via GSM," says Prof Kazanavicius.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 25 2019, @02:12PM (7 children)
Caring is a multi-faceted thing, not usually completely covered in a sound-bite sized sentence. Whilst one productively works in the world, one cannot always "be there" for granny, but with the cameras and AI monitoring, one can be notified almost immediately if there is a problem that involves lack of motion, or, with sufficiently strong AI, anomalous motion. What one does with this information is entirely dependent on the family culture.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 27 2019, @12:14PM (6 children)
Which has what to do with caring? Most people don't like to be monitored 24/7. Your granny may be one of those people.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 27 2019, @02:27PM (5 children)
Speculative, and pointless.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday September 28 2019, @03:17AM (4 children)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday September 28 2019, @04:24PM (3 children)
If granny doesn't want it, some families will respect that, some won't. Some grannies "did what was right" for the kids/grandkids when they were growing up, whether they wanted it or not, and some kids give that tough love right back when granny starts showing up on the floor in the morning with multiple fractures because she slipped on the way to the toilet. All very individual, and of the millions upon millions of grannies in nursing homes across just this country, you have all kinds, including millions who are video monitored in some form or another, whether they want it or not, and millions more who just lie there in a puddle of urine and feces until somebody finally gets around to checking on them.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday September 29 2019, @03:48AM (2 children)
In other words, another pointless non sequitur dissolves in a puff of illogic, perhaps due to a fall in the bathtub.
So what? Nobody dies pretty. If my folks want to go that way, I'm cool with it. I'll respect their choices more than I respect some feelz about how they went out.
Here, I find it interesting how you go straight to a very intrusive way of "caring" for an elderly relative. Sure, we could set up a panopticon as some sort of symbol of our caring (or more likely lack of caring). Or we could just use far less intrusive monitoring devices that get the job done without this huge sacrifice of freedom.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday September 29 2019, @01:55PM (1 child)
Only when it is called for - of the six elderly family I have been in some way involved in caring for during end-stage, four were around when video monitoring was "a thing"... none of them had it because none of them needed it in their particular situations. One, who left us before the internet was big, bought herself into a nursing complex (of 100% her own choosing) where the nannies did watch over her through things like the refrigerator door switch, and the "security system" motion detectors, which were of course 99.9% to watch over the residents and 0.1% to alert for unexpected intruders.
Good for you, and your folks - check back when it's all over, life has a funny way of changing attitudes when the shit really hits the floor. Sometimes it goes as you envision it, usually not.
More a recognition of personal liberty, differences among people, the unpredictability of the future, and the fact that nobody has all the answers - even if some think they do.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday September 29 2019, @10:58PM
I see you never mention such a situation.
Back at you on that. In my defense, I've already had a fair bit of shit to shape my attitudes.
Not in the least. You didn't even think if it would do the job (video/microphone doesn't measure any medically relevant conditions aside from unusual periods of staying put and maybe noise outbursts - when seconds count, help is only hours to days away!) or consider the unintended consequences (horrible blowback such as the elderly relative's life quarters turned into a hacker's porn studio).
It's peculiar how you started your contribution to this thread with an off-topic, weird anti-Boomer rant and then segued into this surveillance fantasy. Sorry, your spiders in the head aren't my inability to cope with mortality.
My view on this is that the technology of the story is a reasonable balance between privacy and saving lives. A lot of people die because they're alone and nobody knows they're in trouble. This helps with that in a very timely manner. But it doesn't create the potential for crazy information leakage of peoples' lives like your proposal did.