Mar-2020
McMaster University testing new tech at Westdale Smart Home to help seniors live on their own
It doesn’t look that different from the other houses on Whitton Road in Westdale. Two-and-a-half storeys. A bay window. Some mock Tudor stylings. You might think a young family or a bunch of students live there.
The smart home is part of a larger research effort by the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging (MIRA), which was officially announced in 2016 after a $15-million donation by chancellor Suzanne Labarge.
Well, you’ll find students in the house. But it’s not what you might think. They are actually researchers, working on their PhD, plotting out technological strategies for people as old as their grandparents or great-grandparents.
The building is called the Westdale Smart Home, and it’s a kind of brick-and-mortar guinea pig to experiment with technology that would assist seniors who are beginning to have problems living on their own.
The newly renovated house is being outfitted with various sensing devices that monitor movement and even the health of the occupant. There are servers in the basement and Bluetooth relay units in most of the rooms.
The technology can notice if the resident is acting erratically or in distress. And it can even offer real-time urine analysis in the toilet.
“The idea is to spot issues early on so they can be treated as early as possible, even before symptoms appear. We want to notice there is an issue before they get sick and have to go to the hospital,” said McMaster University engineering physics professor Qiyin Fang, who is lead researcher at the smart house.
Sensors keep track of movements through the house, looking for signs of erratic behaviour that could signal impending cognitive and dementia issues.
Read the full Hamilton Spectator article here