著者

松井 宏行 中島 一樹 佐々木 和男

出版者

社団法人日本生体医工学会

雑誌

生体医工学 : 日本エム・イー学会誌 (ISSN:1347443X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.46, no.1, pp.117-125, 2008-02-10

被引用文献数

8

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In an aging society, an increase is seen in the number of elderly person living alone. As the incidence of disease and injury increases with aging, a family who lives apart from an elderly parent may be concerned about that person's safety. Conversely, an aging parent may be interested in the lives of their children who live apart from them. To improve the relationship between family members who share such a situation, we have developed an inexpensive telemonitoring system using the television's operating state (TVOS). The system is comprised of sensor and communication sections. The sensor section consists of a current sensor for a television (TV) and an infrared sensor for a remote controller (RC), and outputs the TVOS, i.e., outputs indicating whether the TV is on or off and the RC is used. The communication section consists of a set of power-line communications modems and a computer with an Internet connection. We installed such a system in both an elderly person's home and that of his family living at a distant location. The computer at the family's end requires the TVOS data from the computer at the elderly person's end to be transmitted via the Internet once per minute. A feasibility test, conducted over one year, was performed in two pairs of parent-child families, four families, living apart. The results showed that (1) differences in the TVOS pattern was obtained by each family, and (2) the TVOS pattern differed between business days and non-business days in the same family. The present system does not specifically describe the health condition of an elderly parent living alone, but if that individual's family is familiar with the parent's viewing habits, they would be able to identify any change that might indicate a need for assistance.