A multi-sensor surveillance system for elderly care

Pervasive healthcare systems, enabled by information and communication technology (ICT), can allow the elderly and chronically ill to stay at home while being constantly monitored. This work aims to present a framework for healthcare monitoring systems based on heterogeneous sensors. In addition to video cameras, the system makes use of a variety of heterogeneous sensors that allow adequate monitoring of each patient by fusing the data from the different sensors. The system described in this paper can be deployed into patients´ homes sparing the healthcare costs of living in a health facility where constant monitoring by professionals is required and allowing the elder to live in his home for as long as possible. It can also be deployed in a hospital or a silver-care town environment to cut off the number of healthcare personnel needed, improve the monitoring of patients, and set alarms in case of critical situations.