Arthur would start to cook a meal in his farm home, and the phone would ring. Forgetting he had something on the stove, he would start watching television. Then the smoke alarm would go off, alerting Arthur to a burning saucepan of food. This scenario repeated itself enough times that Arthur's son, Bill, became concerned for his father's safety.
Bill carefully suggested the idea of moving to an assisted living facility, realizing the expense, but trading it off for peace of mind and safety. There, Arthur would have his own apartment, but not have the responsibilities of cooking and cleaning. He would have people nearby to help in an emergency and to socialize with every day. Arthur agreed and now seems happy in his new home. Bill is relieved that his father is close by and that Arthur is eating nutritious meals prepared by a professional cook.
Arthur is one of more than 35 million Americans over age 65. Many of them are facing or will soon face the same issue Arthur and Bill confronted. Will they be able to continue living in their own homes as memory and physical abilities decline? In five to 10 years, the answer may be more hopeful.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology believe they can lengthen
older adults' independence, perhaps even for several years, with computer-based
"aware home" technologies.
Sensors can feed information to computers, giving a home an awareness of the
residents' activities so it can support their needs – in this case, ways
to combat the common impairments of aging.
"This is a well-grounded, pragmatic problem to be looking at," says computer scientist Beth Mynatt, an associate professor in the College of Computing and member of an interdisciplinary research team conducting a project called the Aware Home Research Initiative, with a specific focus on the issue of aging in place. "It's feasible that the technology will be affordable and socially acceptable in the broader context of other options available to senior adults."
The Aware Home project is based in the unique 5,040-square-foot Broadband Institute Residential Laboratory, a three-story home adjacent to the Georgia Tech campus. Construction of the residential lab, which opened in May 2000, was funded by a $700,000 grant from the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA). Additional GRA funds are supporting the maintenance and upgrade of the facility.
"With this project, we are trying to determine how one might design a home to enable older adults to be functionally independent longer and to minimize the transition into an assisted living center," explains Wendy Rogers, a professor in the School of Psychology and another team member. ".... What kind of technology supports do they need to live in their own home longer? At the same time, we'll be designing those supports.
photo by Stanley Leary
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An interdisciplinary research team led by Associate Professor of Computing Gregory Abowd is conducting a project called the Aware Home Research Initiative with a specific focus on using computing technology to allow seniors to live independently longer. The project is based in the unique 5,040-square-foot Broadband Institute Residential Laboratory, a three-story home adjacent to the Georgia Tech campus.
(300-dpi JPEG version - 593k)
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"For example, what is the best way to present information to a senior adult on their medication regimen?" Rogers adds. "You could present visual display reminders and instructions on how to take the medication. You might also track whether they took the medication and then remind them. So we want to design the best interface so they can process the information and benefit from it."
Research funded by the National Science Foundation, corporate sponsors and the GRA centers around three themes: 1) development of technological building blocks that promote awareness of occupants and activities in a home setting; 2) gaining an understanding of the needs of an aging population and creating applications to meet those needs; and 3) development of software infrastructure to engineer robust applications using the technological building blocks, explains Gregory Abowd, director of the Aware Home project, associate director of the Broadband Institute at Georgia Tech and an associate professor in the College of Computing.
Researchers bring various areas of expertise to the project, and their collaboration in the residential lab is vital to the project's success. For example, applications will be driven by the capabilities of sensing and computer perception technologies that are designed and tested in the residential lab, researchers say.
The technologies developed from this research will benefit not only older adults, but other groups with cognitive impairments and eventually, as the technology becomes pervasive, the general public. "As we develop the technology, we find the value of it for a larger group of people," Abowd says. "This is referred to as universal design, and from my perspective it is a goal."
There will be other benefits to the general public, as well. Economically, it provides a tremendous savings if older adults can stay in their own homes rather than move to an institutional setting, says research team member Aaron Bobick, an associate professor in the College of Computing and director of the Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center, with which all research team members are affiliated. Not only is the expense of elder care facilities an issue, so is the availability of them, adds researcher Irfan Essa, an associate professor in the College of Computing.
Bobick cites another impact of Georgia Tech's research: "The Georgia taxpayer also has the benefit of the residential lab and our research being here, making the state grow in national reputation regarding elder care and technology. That means companies will locate significant facilities here and increase the range of technical expertise associated with Georgia."
Though they have not located new facilities in Georgia, companies such as Intel and Motorola have already taken an interest in research at the residential lab. Along with four other companies – Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab (MERL), Hewlett-Packard (HP), Accenture and Visteon – they sponsor research in the form of annual gifts to the Aware Home Research Initiative.
photo by Gary Meek
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Associate Professor of Computing Irfan Essa, left, and his students are focusing on sensing technology, with the Residential Laboratory serving as the test bed. "The goal is to build an infrastructure so an aware home can see and hear its inhabitants and interact with them like a normal person would," Essa explains.
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These companies support the research, hoping to apply its findings about the future of personal computing, the future of connecting broadband communications to all homes and the interaction between these two issues, says Nikil Jayant, director of the Broadband Institute and a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Intel has the most interest in aging in place applications, Abowd says. Meanwhile, MERL is interested in smart environments, as are Accenture and HP. Motorola wants research results on wireless communications, and Visteon is seeking applications that will connect the home and the car, he explains.
"Although research at the Residential Laboratory is industry guided, we have to date not created a platform that is compelling enough for industry to be physically close to the lab," Jayant adds. "Its impact will be at a fundamental-knowledge-creating level. On the other hand, most companies that are attracted to Atlanta and Georgia Tech are attracted even more when they discover the Residential Laboratory as part of our research infrastructure. We'd love to see start-up companies make some use, even if it is indirect, of our research and the intellectual property resulting from it."
While companies are taking notice, Essa expects that retirees will also be attracted to Georgia's advances in elder care and aware home technologies.
In the broadest sense, the Aware Home project "brings to bear what technology should be doing in our homes," Essa says. ".... We are asking questions like, 'What is computing technology good for except Web surfing?' We should start thinking about computing having the same impact on society as mechanical engineers have had on cars."
For more information, contact Gregory Abowd, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0280. (Telephone: 404-894-7512) (E-mail: gregory.abowd@cc.gatech.edu).
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Last updated: July 25, 2002
