Fuzzy Ambient Intelligence in Home Telecare

Abstract

Telecare is the use of communication and/or sensor technologies to detect remotely the requirements of people in need of medical care or other assistance. Typically, but not exclusively, the users of telecare systems are elderly people who would otherwise need residential or nursing support. There is growing interest in the use of telecare, particularly in countries where facing growth in the proportion of elderly people in the population (with consequent increases in care requirements). Both socially and financially, it is generally preferable for the elderly to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. A number of research projects have looked into home-based telecare and telemedicine systems as a way of increasing quality of life for the elderly as well as reducing the cost of care. We can distinguish telemedicine as a subfield of telecare, where the specific aim is to remotely monitor physiological parameters of a person (such as blood sugar levels, blood pressure, etc) whereas telecare is a less specific form of monitoring looking to generate alerts in “emergency” situations.