5. Case Study Smart Home in a Life Care Community Apartment Complex

Mary Study participant is a 77 year old female with a hearing impairment, arthritis, osteoporosis, a total knee replacement, and peripheral neuropathy. She currently lives in an apartment in a life care community in Western New York.

Security Features of the Facility The life care community apartment complex provides some safety and security measures. There is “around the clock” security and also a personal assist device that the residents wear within the building to notify security of a problem. The only problem is that it is a necklace and can’t be worn in the bath where most falls may occur.

Refrigerator Sensor The facility also provides a sensor in the refrigerator as a safety feature that if the door is not opened in 24 hours and a person has not notified the front desk that he/she is away, security will check on the person.

Door Announcer Since Mary has hearing loss, the facility provided a door announcer.

Jim made her apartment smarter by providing: 1. a timed lighting and a coffee maker that could be run by the computer. 2. window security. 3. a chime that rang loud and a flashing light in her living loom for the front door security.

Alarm System Chime and Power Flash If door is opened, chime will ring and light will go on next to plants. Due to the participant’s hearing loss, the light is important for her to recognize that the alarm has been activated.

Appliance Timer Coffee pot is set to activate and begin making coffee every morning at the preset time.

Hand-held Remote Remote will turn lights on and off and will turn lights off if activated by security system.

Problem 1 The motion sensor that was connected to a chime was working all the time causing constant alarm. Solution: Tape one side of the motion sensor to narrow the field of vision.

Problem 2: lighting 1. Health care aide turned off all wall switches. S: Manually turned on all lights and turned off using the computer. 2. Power outage messed up all timing. S: reset timing on a computer for all products. 3. Security light in bedroom was activated with no apparent reason at 2 AM startling Mary making her think someone was breaking in. S: Changed the house code to separate signals. It was getting signal from other X-10 products.

Continued 4. Timing of lighting did not work because many other software were used in an old computer. S: OS was upgraded to Window 98 to Daylight Saving threw off the timing. S: Reset lighting and interface clocks in Active Home on computer. 6. Timing of lighting did not work due to old apartments with old wire. S: Switched to a standard timer control.

Living Room Light Standard light timer was placed back on living room light

Smart Home “ I was happy to be reassured that the security of the chime would work. When I did not open the refrigerator for a day, security came to check on me and opened the door while I was napping. Even with my hearing impairment, I heard the chime and was alerted that someone was in the apartment. This made me feel more secure about the reliability of the Smart Home features.”

Conclusion Currently smart house technology is becoming friendlier by adding wireless and voice activation features. A computer does not have to be on all the time anymore. Once frail elders start using the system comfortably, they can be very satisfied and enjoy the utility. If our smart house project was considered successful, it is mainly due to persons’ effort and determination to make it work. No matter how technology advances, it will not replace human interaction. Human interaction is necessary to make the technology work and is a basic human need.