Recent years have witnessed an increase in human life expectancy fueled by significant improvements in infrastructure, healthcare, and economies across the globe. Longer life spans have altered the world demographics resulting in a larger senior population compared with previous years. This trend has created the need for providing additional care and assistive services to support the aging individuals. Innovative assistance techniques are especially necessary for elderly people who live on their own in their homes. Simultaneously, an explosive growth in IoT gadgets such as sensors and actuators have accelerated the development of smart homes which comprise various types of IoT systems that provide increased convenience to people with degenerating physical and cognitive abilities. Common examples of IoT systems that are being integrated into smart homes include home automation systems, home activity detectors, wearable sensor technologies for remote health management and so on. We identify the common needs of aging and impaired individuals and then we review several IoT applications that can provide the required support. We further discuss some of the challenges that must be addressed to make these IoT systems more practical and reliable for everyday use.

Perez, Alfredo J., Farhan Siddiqui, Sherali Zeadally, and Derek Lane. A Review of IoT Systems to Enable Independence for the Elderly and Disabled Individuals. Internet of Things 21 (2023): e100653. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542660522001342

Farhan Siddiqui is a professor of Computer Science at Dickinson College.

For more information on the published version, visit Science Direct's Website. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542660522001342

Citation