Smart Homes and Assistive
Technology
Now there is the choice for
older and disabled people to remain at home... And be happy!
People with disabilities
and older people are constantly faced with the choice of remaining
at home with a care package to meet their needs or being institutionalised.
Recent Government policies have started a U-turn on this strategy
favouring the former to the latter. Care providers are increasingly
facing the requirement of finding extra resources to comply with
the relocation of people who have previously been in institutional
care. Although funding is available to meet demand, this is not
without constraints and consequently care providers are forced
to do a miracle job with limited finance.
There is considerable
evidence that people with disabilities and older people would
rather stay in their own home than enter institutions, and in
some cases, such as dementia, it is even essential that the person
is in familiar surroundings. One response from care providers
is the use of assistive technology (AT). AT consists of the use
of devices to aid people in their daily lives and span the spectrum
from the provision of walking stick and bath aids to full electronic
devices to open doors and windows. The electronic devices are
often high cost items that significantly increase the quality
of life to people with severe conditions. The problem that is
associated with this technology is that it is often provided in
a piecemeal fashion and the individual is left with a number of
different remote controls and a number of devices that are separated
from each other. The technology is available to wire a house so
that the devices in the home can monitor each other by sending
messages in a two way dialogue. This type of system requires a
bus-line, which is a small cable that is complementary to the
existing mains cable and carries the signals to and from the devices
that are installed.
There are a number of
manufacturers that provide bus-line technology and a number of
different systems (such as CEBus, BatiBus, European Home System
(EHS), European Installation Bus (EIB), Echelon/Lonworks etc).
A major feature of this technology is that the bus line acts as
the safety valve for the system. Most unidirectional AT devices
can fail and when they do so the only way of determining this
is when they appear to have stopped working. Often they are reliant
on computers to provide them with the necessary information to
work correctly, so if the computer crashes, so does the system.
For people with disabilities and older people, AT becomes integrated
into their daily lives. An AT device becomes as important for
the person as the telephone or television is to others. To find
that it is not working can cause the person to feel insecure or
unable to undertake simple tasks. The technology becomes their
lifeline and as such, it must be reliable.
Currently, AT is accepted by many care providers, but there is
still a lack of knowledge, understanding and acceptance of how
smart home technology can be provided using the bus-line. Researchers
in the field have determined that this form of AT is most appropriate
for people with disabilities and older people. They have outlined
that the benefits are considerable for the older person and person
with disabilities, yet the constant stumbling block that they
are presented with is the economic argument. There is little doubt
that economically, a bus-line is more expensive to install that
a cheaper DIY alternative. But this is an initial outlay, which
should be recuperated over a number of years, when the cheaper
devices will have had to have been replaced. The other expense
is the necessity to obtain highly skilled individuals who are
conversant with the technology to design the system for the individual
so that their needs are met. This might involve a number of visits
and be very costly. Often, large organisations will not be willing
to undertake this form of design as it would cost them more for
the consultations than they would make from the installation.
Certainly, costs can be saved by installing the cable into new-built
houses, as retrofitting (putting the bus-line into an existing
house) can be costly. Even retrofitting can be cost effective
if this means that a person can remain in their home for a longer
period and have a better quality of life in the process.
Ultimately, the main
problem associated with this form of technology is that the design
process is very expensive and often complicated. This is where
CUSTODIAN can be of assistance. CUSTODIAN is a freeware software
suite of tools that work within Microsoft Visio and enable non-technical
people to be able to design smart home systems. The tool has a
number of templates for standard systems that allow the user to
copy parts into their own design or design the house (or part
thereof) from scratch. The software can be used in easy mode or
professional mode depending on the skills of the user. The most
important thing about CUSTODIAN is that it is a visualisation
software tool that enables the designed system to be demonstrated
whether to the person who will live in the new home, the carer,
the architect, the installer, the engineer or the care worker.
The software has a cost component, a manufacturer database, a
device database and allows the user to import current up to date
price lists as well as new devices into the system.
CUSTODIAN has been developed
under the fourth framework (DE4004) by a consortium from The Robert
Gordon University, The University of Reading, The University of
Porto, The European Installation Bus Association, Edinvar Housing
and The Tayside Consortium. The consortium have also designed
and commissioned two smart homes for people with disabilities
using the software.
The CUSTODIAN software has been developed to meet the needs of
individuals with disabilities and older people by designing smart
homes and can function as visualisation software to demonstrate
how AT can be organised to clients and family members. It is envisaged
that the software could be adopted by care providers and used
in the field by occupational therapists, social workers and housing
officers, as well as by management, to determine the cost effectiveness
of using differing types of AT/smart house solutions.
The tool is not designed
to work exclusively with bus-line technology. It can be used with
any form of technology that the user determines is appropriate
(including X10 or individual non-smart devices), although the
CUSTODIAN team recommends the use of the bus-line. Bus-line technology
allows feedback from devices themselves. Within Bus-line systems,
The devices, themselves, store the programming and instructions
(protocol) which tells them what they are, what they are supposed
to do and when and how they are supposed to do it. This is part
of what makes the devices 'smart'. These instructions are communicated
through the Bus-line (cable) to other devices (such as light switch...
turn light on). This is undertaken in the same manner as electricity
is passed from the light switch to the light bulb, apart from
the bus-line is only 24 volts DC and allows the transmission of
data bi-directionally. Consequently, when a device determines
it is time to activate or deactivate something it sends a small
message to the appropriate device to turn itself on or off. This
added dialogue between the devices acts as the safety valve for
the system. Should a device malfunction, the system will remain
robust and continue working whilst having the ability to alert
the appropriate persons that a device is malfunctioning.
The
Independent Health Research Consultancy
Guy Dewsbury
©2001 RGU/Notguyfawkes/GD/P2
The Robert Gordon University
Aberdeen
