Automatic Wireless Nurse Caller

The nurse caller device is used as a special communication device between the patient and the nurse within the hospital area as a means of speeding the nurse's time response in providing immediate care to the patient. The designed wireless-based nurse caller device made installation easier and neater. The remote used a Bluetooth module MH-10 connected to the ATMega8 microcontroller as the sender and receiver. The data process using a microcontroller ATMega8 produced characters on the LCD, turned on the LED, and activated the buzzer to call the nurse. The results of the test on the device showed that the farthest distance taken by the HM-10 Bluetooth module in the open area (outdoor) was about 45 meters, and the closed area (indoor) was about 20 meters

Diseño de un sistema de llamado de enfermería: una alternativa

In this article, it is proposed a prototype oriented to nurse-call, which allows to create and inform the request of emergency care of a patient to the public, by means of embedded devices like the Raspberry Pi and a Display Touchscreen LCD. The emergency call is carried out by means of a network of switches that activate a channel, then this signal is conditioned and processed to be transmitted by means of a serial bus RS-485, then the received message is decoded and shown on an LCD screen, finally the request information is stored in a database. Some experiments were conducted to evaluate the energy consumption, the rate of data loss, the scope, as well as tests to validate the scalability of the prototype. The results show that the proposal presents an increase in the demand of electric energy, mainly due to the characteristics of the technology used, however, the results show that the designed system allows to quantify the dynamic in the time of the nurse-call and is compatible with other similar systems.En este artículo se propone un prototipo orientado al llamado de enfermería el cual permite generar e informar la solicitud de atención de emergencia de un paciente al público por medio de dispositivos embebidos como las Raspberry Pi y un Display Touchscreen LCD. El llamado de emergencia se realiza por medio de una red de pulsadores que activan un canal; luego, esta señal es acondicionada y procesada para ser transmitida por medio de un bus serial RS-485; después, el mensaje recibido es decodificado y mostrado en una pantalla LCD; finalmente, la información de la solicitud es almacenada en una base de datos. Se realizaron experimentos para evaluar el consumo energético, la tasa de pérdida de datos, el alcance, así como pruebas para validar la escalabilidad del prototipo. Los resultados muestran que la propuesta presenta un aumento en la demanda de energía eléctrica debido, principalmente, a las características de la tecnología utilizada; sin embargo, los resultados muestran que el sistema diseñado permite cuantificar la dinámica en el tiempo del llamado a enfermería y es compatible con otros sistemas similare

Design and implementation of a wired intercommunication prototype for hospital care

Introduction− In health centers, communication between the medical staff and the patient is generally performed by an intercom. Some of these devices have evolved in order to simplify the duty of medical staff by introducing indicator systems that allow to report which rooms demand medical service. However, they present technical weaknesses, for example, high energy consumption or high loss of informa-tion packets.Objective−Design and build an instrumentation and a measurement prototype for hospital care that demands less energy consumption and gives a wide range of data transmission when compared to the works proposed in the literature.Methodology−In synthesis, the prototype uses a network of switches for emergency call generation. These are sent to an intercom which enables a channel. Then, the information is processed and transmitted to every visualization module through a microcontroller and an RS-485 serial communica-tion bus. Finally, this information is decoded and displayed in a light indicator.Results− The testing protocol evaluates and compares the operation, performance and reliability of the equipment to that similar equipment in the same time window. A reading of energy consumption and loss of data packets was perfor-med. In addition, a random experiment was carried out and the results were modeled from a Poisson stochastic process. The results showed a decrease of power consumption in a sta-ble regime of 91% in comparison to the results mentioned in the literature. On the other hand, the equipment presented an information loss rate under 4% of average.Conclusions−The design process included a hardware and software strategy which allowed to reduce the energy con-sumption of the display module in a steady state and increa-sed the equipment’s reliability. Furthermore, the equipment is technically efficient, scalable and maintenance friendly.Introducción: En centros de salud la comunicación entre el personal médico y los pacientes en general se lleva a cabo por medio del intercomunicador. Algunos de estos dispositivos han evolucionado simplificando los trabajos del personal asistente del hospital, introduciendo sistemas indicadores que permiten informar la habitación que demanda servicio médico al público, sin embargo, presentan debilidades técnicas como el alto consumo energético y la pérdida significativa de paquetes de información. Objetivo: Diseñar y construir un prototipo de instrumentación y medida para el cuidado en hospitales, que demande un gasto energético menor, y un mayor alcance en la transmisión de datos que los propuestos en la literatura. Metodología: En síntesis, el prototipo utiliza una red de interruptores para la generación de las llamadas de emergencia, estas son enviadas a un intercomunicador el cual habilita un canal; luego la información es procesada y transmitida a los módulos de visualización por medio de un microcontrolador y un bus comunicación serial RS-485, finalmente esta información es decodificada y visualizada en un indicador luminoso. Resultados: El protocolo de prueba consistió en evaluar y comparar el funcionamiento, el rendimiento y la confiabilidad del mismo con un equipo similar en la misma ventana de tiempo. Se realizaron lecturas de consumo energético, pérdida de paquetes de datos y se implementó un experimento aleatorio cuyos resultados fueron modelados a partir de un proceso estocástico de Poisson. Los resultados arrojaron una disminución del consumo energético en régimen estable de 91% en comparación a lo expuesto en la literatura. Por otro lado, el equipo presenta una tasa de perdida de paquetes de información menor al 4% en promedio. Conclusiones: El procedimiento de diseño contempla una estrategia por hardware y software que permite disminuir el consumo energético de módulo de visualización en estado estable y aumentar la confiabilidad del equipo. Además de ser eficiente, el equipo es escalable y de fácil mantenimiento

A smart home environment to support safety and risk monitoring for the elderly living independently

The elderly prefer to live independently despite vulnerability to age-related challenges. Constant monitoring is required in cases where the elderly are living alone. The home environment can be a dangerous environment for the elderly living independently due to adverse events that can occur at any time. The potential risks for the elderly living independently can be categorised as injury in the home, home environmental risks and inactivity due to unconsciousness. The main research objective was to develop a Smart Home Environment (SHE) that can support risk and safety monitoring for the elderly living independently. An unobtrusive and low cost SHE solution that uses a Raspberry Pi 3 model B, a Microsoft Kinect Sensor and an Aeotec 4-in-1 Multisensor was implemented. The Aeotec Multisensor was used to measure temperature, motion, lighting, and humidity in the home. Data from the multisensor was collected using OpenHAB as the Smart Home Operating System. The information was processed using the Raspberry Pi 3 and push notifications were sent when risk situations were detected. An experimental evaluation was conducted to determine the accuracy with which the prototype SHE detected abnormal events. Evaluation scripts were each evaluated five times. The results show that the prototype has an average accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of 94%, 96.92% and 88.93% respectively. The sensitivity shows that the chance of the prototype missing a risk situation is 3.08%, and the specificity shows that the chance of incorrectly classifying a non-risk situation is 11.07%. The prototype does not require any interaction on the part of the elderly. Relatives and caregivers can remotely monitor the elderly person living independently via the mobile application or a web portal. The total cost of the equipment used was below R3000

Design and implementation of a wired intercommunication prototype for hospital care

Introduction: In health centers, communication between the medical staff and the patient is generally performed by an intercom. Some of these devices have evolved to simplify the duty of medical staff by introducing indicator systems that allow to report which rooms demand medical service. However, they present technical weaknesses, for example, high energy consumption or high loss of information packets. Objective: Design and build an instrumentation and a measurement prototype for hospital care that demands less energy consumption and gives a wide range of data transmission when compared to the works proposed in the literature. Methodology: In synthesis, the prototype uses a network of switches for emergency call generation. These are sent to an intercom which enables a channel. Then, the information is processed and transmitted to every visualization module through a microcontroller and an RS-485 serial communication bus. Finally, this information is decoded and displayed in a light indicator. Results: The testing protocol evaluates and compares the operation, performance and reliability of the equipment to that similar equipment in the same time window. A reading of energy consumption and loss of data packets was performed. In addition, a random experiment was carried out and the results were modeled from a Poisson stochastic process. The results showed a decrease of power consumption in a stable regime of 91% in comparison to the results mentioned in the literature. On the other hand, the equipment presented an information loss rate under 4% of average. Conclusions: The design process included a hardware and software strategy which allowed to reduce the energy consumption of the display module in a steady state and increased the equipment’s reliability. Furthermore, the equipment is technically efficient, scalable and maintenance friendly

A smart home environment to support safety and risk monitoring for the elderly living independently

The elderly prefer to live independently despite vulnerability to age-related challenges. Constant monitoring is required in cases where the elderly are living alone. The home environment can be a dangerous environment for the elderly living independently due to adverse events that can occur at any time. The potential risks for the elderly living independently can be categorised as injury in the home, home environmental risks and inactivity due to unconsciousness. The main research objective was to develop a Smart Home Environment (SHE) that can support risk and safety monitoring for the elderly living independently. An unobtrusive and low cost SHE solution that uses a Raspberry Pi 3 model B, a Microsoft Kinect Sensor and an Aeotec 4-in-1 Multisensor was implemented. The Aeotec Multisensor was used to measure temperature, motion, lighting, and humidity in the home. Data from the multisensor was collected using OpenHAB as the Smart Home Operating System. The information was processed using the Raspberry Pi 3 and push notifications were sent when risk situations were detected. An experimental evaluation was conducted to determine the accuracy with which the prototype SHE detected abnormal events. Evaluation scripts were each evaluated five times. The results show that the prototype has an average accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of 94%, 96.92% and 88.93% respectively. The sensitivity shows that the chance of the prototype missing a risk situation is 3.08%, and the specificity shows that the chance of incorrectly classifying a non-risk situation is 11.07%. The prototype does not require any interaction on the part of the elderly. Relatives and caregivers can remotely monitor the elderly person living independently via the mobile application or a web portal. The total cost of the equipment used was below R3000

A Unified Recommendation Framework for Data-driven, People-centric Smart Home Applications

With the rapid growth in the number of things that can be connected to the internet, Recommendation Systems for the IoT (RSIoT) have become more significant in helping a variety of applications to meet user preferences, and such applications can be smart home, smart tourism, smart parking, m-health and so on. In this thesis, we propose a unified recommendation framework for data-driven, people-centric smart home applications. The framework involves three main stages: complex activity detection, constructing recommendations in timely manner, and insuring the data integrity. First, we review the latest state-of-the-art recommendations methods and development of applications for recommender system in the IoT so, as to form an overview of the current research progress. Challenges of using IoT for recommendation systems are introduced and explained. A reference framework to compare the existing studies and guide future research and practices is provided. In order to meet the requirements of complex activity detection that helps our system to understand what activity or activities our user is undertaking in relatively high level. We provide adequate resources to be fit for the recommender system. Furthermore, we consider two inherent challenges of RSIoT, that is, capturing dynamicity patterns of human activities and system update without a focus on user feedback. Based on these, we design a Reminder Care System (RCS) which harnesses the advantages of deep reinforcement learning (DQN) to further address these challenges. Then we utilize a contextual bandit approach for improving the quality of recommendations by considering the context as an input. We aim to address not only the two previous challenges of RSIoT but also to learn the best action in different scenarios and treat each state independently. Last but not least, we utilize a blockchain technology to ensure the safety of data storage in addition to decentralized feature. In the last part, we discuss a few open issues and provide some insights for future directions

Preemie Care: A Co-designed Digital Tool to Improve Communication Between Health Personnel and Parents of Preterm Infants

Communication between parents and health providers is essential in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) settings to ensure both parties collaborate in infant care. However, in most NICUs, the interaction between parents and NICU staff is strained, thus hindering communication. These communication challenges are due to language, medical vocabulary and cultural barriers between NICU staff and mothers. These challenges create communication gaps, which disempower parents and frustrate health staff. To bridge NICU communication gaps, several researchers have deployed digital health interventions. However, although the existing NICU technologies have effectively improved NICU communication, most parents struggle to interact with these interventions because they do not fit parents' technical and literacy capabilities. These design gaps arise because parents were not fully included in the design process of the existing NICU digital interventions. In this research, we sought to address the communication gaps within the NICU environment by employing a co-design approach to develop a digital intervention that supports infant care journey in a low-resource NICU setting. The co-design process included six research phases that spanned over 32 months. We engaged mothers of premature infants and NICU staff throughout this process while focusing on identifying how best to involve NICU stakeholders in a codesign process to ensure that the final intervention was usable and useful. The co-design process led to the development of MoM connect workflow which was disqualified by mothers and NICU staff because it did not meet mothers' needs. We further engaged NICU stakeholders in the co-design process and agreed on developing Preemie Care (PMC) system, an educational resource tool that disseminated digital health videos in multiple languages and through multiple technologies to empower parents and NICU staff to work together and advocate for their preterm infants. PMC system was deployed at Groote Schuur NICU for eight months where we interacted with users and monitored it usage logs to evaluate its efficacy. Our empirical evidence revealed that access to health information improved parents and their social networks medical vocabulary, thus empowering them to engage with their peers and NICU staff. We also learned that sharing health information in multiple languages does not resolve the language barriers among multilingual NICU parents. Instead, our results show that bilingual parents prefer accessing health information in multiple languages to improve their medical vocabulary and understandability, thus empowering them to engage in their infants' health care and decision-making. Hence, this research provides the design mechanisms for a NICU intervention to bridge communication gaps between bilingual parents and NICU staff. This work contributes to the field of Human-Computer Interaction(HCI) by highlighting the ethical and methodological considerations to engage NICU stakeholders interacting in a sensitive NICU setting in a collaborative co-design process. We also contribute to HCI knowledge by providing design mechanisms for a NICU intervention meant to bridge communication gaps between bilingual parents and NICU staff in a low-resource setting and design features of a digital NICU intervention that enhance family-centred care in the NICU setting