IOT solution for immediate help for elders

Background

One of the observations I had in my neighborhood was that of elderly people residing alone at home, while the younger members of their family were occupied with their professional work. This made them a vulnerable segment with potential exposures to incidents of theft, robbery, physical assault, murder or even ill health. With no one around, they were always in potential need of an immediate intervention.

Proposed Solution

To address this exposure, I designed and developed an IOT device. With one push button on this device, the affected elderly person could transmit a distress message to a responsible person who would in turn be in a position to take an immediate action. Within our housing condominium, the responsible person was identified as the resident President of the Housing Society, and all the elderly residents were provided access to a push button of this integrated IOT device. In case of a distress, they could push the button, and the resident President would get a distress message for initiating the necessary action.

Design of IOT Device

The central security controller has a single Arduino uno board that’s connected to the GSM module via the transmission/receiver circuit wires, and a piezo buzzer. The Arduino has an encoded button and when pressed, the controller triggers the buzzer and notifies the owner via text message. To turn the alarm off, the owner can either send a pre-configured text message from the registered number or simply press the disarm button.

Diagram of the IOT Device

Impact of the solution

This device was installed in March 2020 and during a period of six months, 57 distress cases were successfully addressed. 84% of these cases were due to ill health or safety issues, and 12% security and 4% were false alarms.