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Senior Times • April 2017
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SMART HOME, From page 1 As the U.S. population ages, using technology to address challenges is of increasing interest to senior citizens who wish to stay in their homes, care providers and government leaders, especially since assisted living costs can average $70,000 per year, according to a WSU release. Someday soon seniors might be able to rely on a “smart home” to alert their caregivers or loved ones if they fall or to provide them a snapshot of their week’s activities, Cook said. Cook works with “smart home” test sites that feature 25 sensors strategically placed throughout a home. One hundred different sites have been equipped, usually for about a month at a time. Roughly 30 “smart homes” are currently active, she said. The sensors are meant to be unobtrusive. They aren’t cameras, but infrared motion sensors — similar to the way a garage door sensor works, Cook said. Another kind of sensor monitors the opening and closing of doors, from a front door to a medicine cabinet door. Cook, a professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, is working to design software to analyze the sensors’ data to recognize activities and patterns in a “smart home.” When changes in routines or behavior occur, the system could dispatch a call for help or alert a caregiver. The “smart homes” may even be able to interact with seniors, alerting them to take their medicines during a meal, for example. Cook said she works closely with health care experts to interpret and label the data to make it more meaningful. When asked about a timeline for when “smart homes” could be commonplace, she said she expects to “see big changes within the next 10 years.” She also joked that the ideal “smart home” would be able to do laundry. Cook holds several patents in environmental sensor-driven activity model development. She cofounded Adaptelligence, a startup company that focuses on activity recognition using sensors in wearable and mobile devices. A former WSU graduate student also founded Behaviometrics, which is building a consumer product for elder care that uses an in-home sensing array developed in Cook’s lab. uSMART HOME, Page 3