Richard Marshall MSc Dissertation 2015/16

Low-cost home sensing using the Raspberry Pi to assist with monitoring the elderly

Supervised by F.Ciravegna

Abstract

The need for a smart home for medical reasons is at its highest when it comes to an elderly person living alone. However, since the birth of smart home technology, a prevalent theme across the range of available products is the high cost for the purchase and installation of smart home components. As a result of this, the average elderly household is denied access to the practicality provided by smart home systems.

This project aims to offer a new approach to the smart home by having the main focus of the project aimed at keeping the costs low, saving money in the long-term by avoiding the necessity for constant check-ups on the elderly.With this elderly usage aspect in mind, it could not be expected by the project to assume the person being monitored has any technical knowledge. From this, a requirement was drafted for the system to be fully functional without any direct physical interaction from the person being monitored.

By achieving these aims, the project was able to offer the functionality required to monitor an elderly person’s home. Should the elderly person not leave their bed in a morning, have a gas leak, lose heating within the home, this would be picked up and reported immediately to the designated home monitors via e-mail. The project’s solution also consisted of an online web interface to view less urgent occurrences within the home.