The Hindu Business Line : Radio route to care for the aged

Radio care
RIFD receiver sends signals based on person's activities that are transmitted to a PC
If the subject has a medical episode, it sets off an alarm that is sent via Internet to the patient's relative

TRACKING MOVEMENTS: As an Intel researcher lifts a cup, it sends a radio frequency signal to the cuff on his wrist generating an activity record on a distant PC, simulated by the screen in the background. - Anand Parthasarathy

San Francisco , Oct. 02

Imagine this scenario: You have to go work, leaving an aged parent at home. He or she needs to take medication regularly - and you are concerned that the patient performs normal routines without accident. You can't afford a day nurse. So what can you do?

The Internet and the technology of radio tagging might soon provide an affordable solution. A joint work-in-progress by chip-maker Intel and the University of Washington was showcased on the sidelines of the former's developer forum that concluded here on Thursday.

Items of common household use - crockery, food containers, bottles of medicine - are fitted with cheap radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. The subject, possibly an elderly person, wears an RFID receiver fashioned as a wrist-band. When he or she eats, drinks, or takes pills or potions, these activities generate a series of signals that are transmitted to a personal computer. A special software interprets these signals and creates a pattern of behaviour. If the subject has a medical episode of some kind, the dropping of a cup, or not taking medication in time, sets off an alarm that is sent via Internet to the patient's relative or health worker.

Privacy

"Unlike video cameras, the RFID -based activity recognition system steers clear of privacy issues", Intel researcher, Mr Matthai Philipose, told Business Line, "The intelligence built into the programme tries to reconstruct a scenario based on the context and subject's actions. Did the patient eat his or her meals ... based on what utensils or crockery was handled. Was the medication taken on time...". The research group is now working on software that will also prompt the subject with a checklist of actions using a touch screen computer.

The work is part of Intel's recent healthcare initiative, which has already produced the prototype of a tablet PC-based mobile clinical assistant jointly developed with the US-based Motion Computing. The chipmaker has joined with Samsung, Philips, Sahar, Cisco, Panasonic and others to start a health initiative known as Continua which hopes by 2008 to create a common logo that will certify interoperability of health care electronic systems.

The initiative might create some opportunities for India-based content providers who are known to be strong in areas such as RFID.

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