REMOTE MONITORING OF VULNERABLE PEOPLE

Abstract

 A system for alerting a remote user to a potential incident concerning a vulnerable person comprises:
a hub module for location in the same building as the vulnerable person, comprising means for data communication with a cellular wireless data network;
a plurality of sensors arranged to establish a short-range data connection with said hub module;
an identifying module forming part of, or in short-range data connection with the hub module and arranged to determine the presence of a particular individual;
a server remote from the building arranged in data communication with the hub module and comprising a user interface by which a user can specify one or more rules for triggering an alert, said rule(s) involving output of one or more of the sensors. The system is arranged to monitor the output of the sensors to determine whether any rule has been met and, if a rule has been met, to issue a predefined alert.

Description

[0001] This invention relates to systems for allowing the remote monitoring of vulnerable people such as those who are elderly or sick and living alone.

[0002] Systems exist in which vulnerable people living alone can summon help by means of a wireless manual alert or 'panic button' - typically a button provided on a device worn on a pendant around the neck. However such arrangements have several drawbacks. First they rely on the pendant actually being worn, which some people are reluctant to do as they dislike the suggestion of vulnerability which it confers. It is also not convenient to wear at night or while washing. Second, even if the pendant is worn the wearer may be unwilling or unable to activate the alarm - e.g. through incapacity or through an unwillingness to cause trouble. The latter phenomenon stems partly from the fact that such alarms are seen as an emergency measure and so not suitable for situations in which some help is required but not necessarily on an emergency basis.

[0003] The present invention aims to provide an improved arrangement and when viewed from a first aspect provides a system for alerting a remote user to a potential incident concerning a vulnerable person comprising:

a hub module for location in the same building as the vulnerable person, comprising means for data communication with a cellular wireless data network;

a plurality of sensors arranged to establish a short-range data connection with said hub module;

an identifying module forming part of, or in short-range data connection with said hub module and arranged to determine the presence of a particular individual;

a server remote from said building arranged in data communication with said hub module and comprising a user interface by which a user can specify one or more rules for triggering an alert, said rule(s) involving output of one or more of said sensors;

wherein said system is arranged to monitor said output of the sensors, determine whether any rule has been met and, if a rule has been met, to issue a predefined alert.

[0004] Thus it will be seen by those skilled in the art that in accordance with the invention a number of sensors can be used to monitor a person and to trigger an alert automatically if the sensor output indicates that a situation of concern, as specified in a predetermined rule, has arisen. In a set of embodiments the sensors are selected from the group comprising: movement sensors, e.g. passive infra-red sensors; temperature sensors; light sensors; sound sensors, pill dispensers, pressure mats and door sensors. By way of non-limiting example a rule could be set that triggers an alert if there is no movement in the kitchen between 11 am and 3pm or if the temperature in the house is below 18 degrees C for more than two days.

[0005] In addition to the sensors, the system comprises an identifying module which allows rules to be defined regarding the generation of alerts associated with attendance, or non-attendance, of individuals such as carers or family members. The means of identification could take many forms. It could, for example, comprise a touchscreen or keypad for entering a code or password; a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader to read an RFID code from a card or tag carried by a particular person, a magnetic swipe card reader, a near-field communication (NFC) detector or any other suitable technology. A simple example of a rule involving the identifying module would be to trigger an alert if a carer had not visited for in the last 24 hours.

[0006] Although the rules are set using a user interface associated with the remote server, they could be stored locally at the hub module in order to allow it to determine when a rule has been met. In such arrangements an alarm trigger notification could be sent to the remote server via the cellular data network. In another set of embodiments however the remote server is arranged to determine whether a rule is met such that the local hub need only transmit raw data relating to the sensor outputs. This may be beneficial in reducing the processing power that the local hub needs and thus its cost.

[0007] The remote server could be connected directly to the hub module via the cellular data network or one or more intermediate servers could be provided. The remote server need not be provided by a single machine and could therefore be a virtual subsystem divided across a number of machines. In particular the user interface for defining the rules may be separate from the storage and/or processing of the rules during operation.

[0008] The short-range data communication between the sensors and the hub module could take any convenient form - for example it could be wired. Preferably however it is wireless. Any suitable proprietary or standard wireless protocol could be used. In a set of embodiments the sensors are arranged to communicate with the hub module by Bluetooth Low Energy (trade mark). The sensors could maintain a continuous connection with the hub module but in a set of embodiments they are arranged only to connect to the hub module intermittently - e.g. according to a fixed schedule or when there is new data to report. This may help in minimising power consumption in the sensor units themselves and may assist in dealing with any limits imposed on the number of simultaneous connections which can be supported. In a set of embodiments the hub module is arranged to have a set-up mode in which it indicates that placement of a sensor is satisfactory for enabling data communication.

[0009] The rules for triggering an alert could comprise a single sensor output - e.g. reaching a threshold value or exceeding a threshold for a predetermined time. An example of this would be a movement sensor indicating that the bathroom had been occupied for more than half an hour. Alternatively they could involve a plurality of sensors - either simultaneously or in a particular sequence.

[0010] The invention also extends to a kit of parts for installation as part of a system for alerting a remote user to a potential incident concerning a vulnerable person the kit comprising:

a hub module for location in the same building as the vulnerable person, comprising means for data communication with a cellular wireless data network;

a plurality of sensors arranged to establish a short-range data connection with said hub module;

an identifying module forming part of, or in short-range data connection with said hub module and arranged to determine the presence of a particular individual; wherein said hub module is arranged to

connect to a server remote from said building and to transmit data from said sensors and said identifying module to said remote server.

[0011] The optional features set out hereinabove with reference to the first aspect of the invention apply equally to this aspect of the invention.

[0012] An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the parts of a monitoring system installed in the home of a vulnerable person; and

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the parts of the monitoring system remote from the home.

[0013] Turning to Fig. 1 there may be seen a sensor unit 2, a hub unit 4 and an identity card 6 which are all parts of the system located in the home of a vulnerable person such as an elderly person living alone.

[0014] The sensor unit 2 has a number of components as will be described below. A given system will typically comprise a number of such sensor units located in different places e.g. different rooms - around the house. The further sensors may or may not have all the features shown with regard to the sensor unit 2.

[0015] The sensor unit 2 comprises a passive infra-red sensor 8, a light sensor 10 and a temperature sensor 12. The sensor unit 2 may also in general comprise a reed switch 14. This can be used for example on an external access door to detect people coming and going from the house, which can be correlated with other sensor data as will be explained below. As mentioned above, other sensor units may not have each of these types of sensors; different sensor units can then be used in different parts of the house. Alternatively it may be advantageous to manufacture a single design of sensor unit which has all of the sensors mentioned above but in which not all of the sensors are necessarily used. Of course the sensor unit 2 may have other types of sensors, not mentioned herein, in addition to or instead of the examples given.

[0016] In addition to the static sensor units 2, the system could be provided with a manual alert. This could take the form of a 'panic button' worn by the vulnerable person, or could be provided at the hub unit 4, e.g. by means of a button, a particular identity card etc.

[0017] Also in the sensor unit 2 is a battery 16 and a low-power short-range radio transmitter 18 which is configured as a slave unit under the Bluetooth Low Energy (TM) protocol. A suitable example is based on the Texas Instruments BLE System on Chip (SoC) CC2540 but of course other chips or wireless or wired communication protocols could be employed.

[0018] The hub unit 4 also comprises a number of components. First there is a counterpart low-power short-range radio receiver 20 configured as a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) master for receiving data from the sensor units 2. Again a Texas Instruments BLE SoC can be used as an example. Although the BLE stack for some chips (including the Texas Instruments ones mentioned here) limit the number of slaves to which a master can be connected simultaneously, in this embodiment the sensor units 2 are configured only to connect to the hub unit when they have data to transmit rather than maintaining a constant connection. This allows a system with more than three sensor units, which will often be required, and also preserves battery power in the sensor units 2.

[0019] The hub unit also includes some suitable non-volatile memory 22 - e.g. solid state flash memory. Although the hub unit is normally main-powered it includes a backup battery 24 to ensure continuity of operation in the event of a power failure and in particular allows the system to alert a carer or other responsible person to the power failure which could in itself indicate reason for concern. The backup battery may, for example, allow autonomous operation for at least six hours.

[0020] The hub unit 4 further comprises a card reader module 26 which allows the hub unit 4 to read data from an identity card such as the identity card 6 shown in Fig. 1. This allows the hub unit 4 to establish the physical presence of a holder of the card 6 in the house. This could employ any suitable technology such as magnetic strip, RFID, NFC etc. There could, for example, be a single card which is used by the primary occupant of the house themself to indicate when he/she is leaving or returning to the house. Alternatively, cards could be issued to multiple people associated with the primary occupant e.g. relatives, neighbours, district nurses and domestic service providers. This allows the hub unit 4 to keep track of the timing, duration and identity of visitors. Cards could also be used to denote specific events - e.g. as an urgent alert as mentioned above.

[0021] Also provided in the hub unit 4 is a modem 28 for connecting to a wireless cellular data network such as GPRS. This allows the hub unit 4 to communicate with a remote server as will be described below with reference to Fig. 2. Preferably the modem 28 includes a multi-network SIM card which allows connection via any cellular data network. The modem 28 may, for example, be configured automatically to select a different network if the previously used network is not available. This increases the likelihood that a network connection will be available when required.

[0022] Finally, the hub unit 4 includes a microprocessor 30 which controls operation of the hub unit 4.

[0023] Turning to Fig. 2, there may be seen an overview of the rest of the system which is remote from the house which is being monitored. The hub unit 4 is represented in the top left corner of the diagram and is shown connected to a mobile network access point 32 by means of a GPRS or other wireless data connection 34.

[0024] The mobile network provider access point 32 passes on the data over a virtual private network 36 to a data handling server 38 which interfaces with the system application server 40 which includes a number of modules. These include a database 42 which stores details of system users and associated rules to be applied as well as logging the data from the sensors from each hub unit 4. The application server also includes an expert system 44 which is a set of algorithms which are used to apply rules to the data returned from the sensors 2 to determine whether or not to issue alerts. A house keeper module 46 is used to manage communication with registered users via phone and email, SMS etc. Finally, the application server 40 comprises a web application programming interface 48 which provides both a website 50 for purchasing products and services and managing subscriptions and a portal 52 for managing a particular service e.g. to set up rules, change contact information etc.

[0025] An exemplary operation of the system described above will now be described. Upon installation of a new system inside a home, a very straightforward set up may be achieved by pressing a button on the hub unit 4 so that it enters a set up or diagnostic mode where after the sensor units 2 may be placed in appropriate positions around the house with coloured indicators on one or both units to indicate to the user whether the sensors are in proper range of the hub unit 4 and thus are able to establish a reliable data communication. This therefore allows installation by almost any user without requiring any technical knowledge or detailed training.

[0026] Then a customer sets up an account in the portal 52 by inputting their communication choices and details (mobile numbers for text alerts and email addresses for email alerts for example).

[0027] The user managers their own account by creating rules against which the data from the sensor units 2 are measured in order to determine whether the user should be alerted to a potential problem. Rules can be configured for individual sensor units 2 (e.g. those located in a particular room) or across multiple sensor units 2. The rules can be based on, for example, movement, lack of movement, temperature being too high or too low, light levels being too high or too low etc. (although light is unlikely to be used on its own in defining a rule). Rules can also be configured for presentation of identity cards 6 so that, for example, the system can alert a user if a carer has not arrived by a certain time on a specified day of the week. The application server 40 performs continuous 24 hour monitoring and issues alerts automatically whenever one of the rules associated with a particular house (that is a particular hub unit 4) is triggered in accordance with a user's requirements. Some examples of the kind of rules which can be set are given further below.

[0028] The portal 52 allows a user to access all of the data collected by this system which includes logs for example of temperature, light and movement which have been picked up by the sensors. Historical data may also be displayed graphically. This allows a user to analyse data over time to detect patterns of movement etc. this can be used to refine the rules which are set to pick up deviations from normal behaviour.

[0029] A further section of the portal 52 allows the alerts which have been issued to be listed. In addition to the user-configurable rules, there are several system maintenance rules which are used to indicate whether, for example, the hub unit 4 is working properly (and is receiving mains power) or the battery in a sensor unit 2 is running low.

[0030] Alerts may be based on a single sensor event or a condition which exists for a particular period of time. One example of this would be to issue an alert if the temperature rises above 30°c in the kitchen (or indeed in any other room). Another example would be lack of any movement detected in the kitchen between 11 am and 3pm which might indicate that the occupant of the house had not prepared a midday meal. It may also be possible in accordance with embodiments of the invention to extend rules such that sequences of events and/or events involving different sensors can be analysed so as to generate an alert as appropriate. One example would be if a bedroom sensor is triggered during the night, followed by the bathroom sensor being triggered then an alert would be issued if the bathroom sensor is not triggered again within 10 minutes since this might indicate that the person using the bathroom had had a fall.

[0031] The portal 52 allows users to set up a calling circle so that others may be alerted via text and/or email this could be helpful if the account holder lives a long distance from the primary occupant of the house and wishes to call on the support of a neighbour or friend who lives close by.

Examples

[0032] Three specific scenarios illustrating possible rules that can be set are given below:

1 (Mum forgets to have breakfast) - the system sends a text to her daughter to tell her that no one has entered the kitchen between 7am and 10am - the daughter rings her mum, who had been distracted by the radio, and reminds her to have breakfast.

2. (Dad thinks he can manage without putting the central heating on) - his son checks a 7 day overview to see that the average temperature has been below 19°c for the last 5 days - the son discusses this with his dad on his next visit and they agree to adjust the thermostat.

3. (George's lunchtime meal did not arrive) - the system texts a neighbour to say that the visitor's card was not swiped by 1.30pm - then neighbour pops around to help George make a meal and brings the matter to the attention of the meal provider.

[0033] Thus it will be appreciated that in accordance with the above described embodiment of the invention a non-intrusive monitoring system may be installed in the home of a vulnerable person which allows their safety and wellbeing to be discreetly but comprehensively monitored by people who are not in the same location through the means of an intelligent, automated system which will alert the user to a situation which might give cause for concern to allow a straightforward check or further investigation but without requiring a continual proactive checking by the user nor an overly intrusive interrogation of the vulnerable person. It will be appreciated that many variants and modifications may be made the system as described with reference to the particular embodiment without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A system for alerting a remote user to a potential incident concerning a vulnerable person comprising:

a hub module for location in the same building as the vulnerable person, comprising means for data communication with a cellular wireless data network;

a plurality of sensors arranged to establish a short-range data connection with said hub module;

an identifying module forming part of, or in short-range data connection with said hub module and arranged to determine the presence of a particular individual;

a server remote from said building arranged in data communication with said hub module and comprising a user interface by which a user can specify one or more rules for triggering an alert, said rule(s) involving output of one or more of said sensors;

wherein said system is arranged to monitor said output of the sensors, determine whether any rule has been met and, if a rule has been met, to issue a predefined alert.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the sensors are selected from the group comprising: movement sensors, passive infra-red sensors; temperature sensors; light sensors; sound sensors, pill dispensers, pressure mats and door sensors.

3. A system as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein the identifying module comprises one or more of: a touchscreen or keypad for entering a code or password; a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader to read an RFID code from a card or tag carried by a particular person, a magnetic swipe card reader, a near-field communication (NFC) detector or any other suitable technology.

4. A system as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the rules are stored locally at the hub module in order to allow it to determine when a rule has been met.

5. A system as claimed in claim 4 arranged to send an alarm trigger notification to the remote server via the cellular data network.

6. A system as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the remote server is arranged to determine whether a rule is met.

7. A system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the short-range data communication between the sensors and the hub module is wireless.

8. A system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the sensors are arranged only to connect to the hub module intermittently.

9. A system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the hub module is arranged to have a set-up mode in which it indicates that placement of a sensor is satisfactory for enabling data communication.

10. A system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the rules for triggering an alert involve a plurality of sensors.

11. A kit of parts for installation as part of a system as claimed in any preceding claim.

12. A kit of parts for installation as part of a system for alerting a remote user to a potential incident concerning a vulnerable person the kit comprising:

a hub module for location in the same building as the vulnerable person, comprising means for data communication with a cellular wireless data network;

a plurality of sensors arranged to establish a short-range data connection with said hub module;

an identifying module forming part of, or in short-range data connection with said hub module and arranged to determine the presence of a particular individual; wherein said hub module is arranged to connect to a server remote from said building and to transmit data from said sensors and said identifying module to said remote server.

Drawing