Wearable sensor-based system to promote physical activity among elderly people

The European agenda for 2020 sets out the challenge of improving the quality of life of European citizens and thereby increasing life-expectancy by two years. The objective of the study and proposed system presented in this paper is to promote physical activity among older people in a way that ensures the elderly person´s welfare and health by designing healthy exercise routines, supported by a biometric parameters monitoring system. The system is based on the acquisition of data by wearable sensors. To acquire the data, a mobile application has been developed to communicate with sensors, and analyze and store the data the sensors collect. The system also has a web telemonitoring platform and has been designed to send real-time tracking data to each person who is performing the activity recorded in the system. If the system detects a movement out of a pre-programmed range, the user is warned to stop / change his/her activity and / or see a doctor if convenient. To verify the correct operation of the system, various trials have been designed and performed which test the system during physical activity at different times of day. With these tests, it was possible to compare the health status of individuals based on age and the physical activity they perform. The users´ satisfaction during the test has also been evaluated.