Forget Me Not :  eLDERmon  Intro

Firstly I want to thank the sponsors for enabling this Challenge.

Having recently completed the "Beyond the phone" and seeing the fantastic achievements of the others, I can say for sure this will be interesting.

I took a slightly different approach to this Challenge, which is detailed below.Reason for the RoadTest:

For this challenge I was thinking about using it to monitor 'Grannie'.There are many elderly that prefer to be independent, not rely on others, or have a fuss made.

While they are capable, there is still a requirement to passively monitor them to ensure small problems don't become larger health problems.This doesn't suit all cultures, and countries, but certainly here in New Zealand we have an aging population, that live in their own homes, but sometimes need checking on.

In many situations the family is not in the same town, and while a phone call never goes astray, the answers to some questions will always be 'positive'.I'm not advocating a web camera, but monitoring the following may help decide if a surprise visit is required.

• • Power
  • Inside temperature and Humidity
  • Outside temperature and humidity
  • Hot Water cylinder
  • Pantry door
  • Motion sensors in lounge, hallway and kitchen.
  • Light levels outside and in selected areas.
  • Wired smoke alarms (in addition to the normal ones)

New Zealand homes don't tend to be as well heated as overseas, and despite the large amount of Hydro power, the price of electricity is high.The above ensures that 'Grannie' is keeping warm, and making use of the warm dry days to air the house out, or shutting the windows early enough.

The Hot water ensures that 'Grannie' is following regular patterns for hygiene.The pantry ensures that they are eating regularly and shopping, while the motion sensors check to see that they are still mobile and not shutting themselves in a single room all day.

The light level can be used to see when they rise or go to bed and whether they are opening the curtains to gain solar energy. (many older homes have single glazing, meaning curtains are a necessity)The idea of all of this to see a trend in the pattern, and possibly ensure intervention is applied appropriate to the concern.

Additional sensors could be added to selected windows, however generally our elderly are very concerned about security so most have latches or fittings to prevent them being opened for ingress.

Many thanks

Mark Beckett

It would be applicable here to have some form of warning that any electrical work should be done in accordance with local regulations, to ensure safety.

I have seen many instances where potential hazards have been created, and safety has been compromised.

So as you can see I'm not wanting to control anything, but I will be monitoring mains power, and its essential that its done safely.I will demonstrate a cheap easy means of adding a current probe, which could be fitted by the homeowner, but will pass an electrical inspection.

During the course of this I want to touch on security.

The EnOcean protocol includes the ability to encrypt the data, but what happens after it leaves the house and is stored on some server ... how visible is it to others?The last thing 'grannie' needs is for someone to know she goes shopping on tuesday afternoon.

So shopping list to prepare, thanks to the kind generosity of element14, and put some thought into the presentation of the data.

Mark