Changes in the gait characteristics, such as walking speed and stride length, of a person living at home can be used to presage cognitive decline, predict fall potential, monitor long-term changes in cognitive impairment, test drug regimens, and more. This thesis presents a novel approach to gait analysis in a smart-home environment by leveraging new advances in inexpensive sensors and embedded systems to create novel solutions for in-home gait analysis. Using a simple, non-invasive hardware system consisting entirely of wall-mounted infrared and radio frequency sensor arrays, data is collected on the gait of subjects as they pass by. This data is then analyzed and sent to a clinician for further study. The system is non-invasive in that it does not use cameras and could be built into the molding of a home so that it would be nearly invisible. In a finished prototype version, the system presented in this thesis could be used to analyze the gait characteristics of one or more subjects living in a home environment while ignoring the data of visitors and other non-subject cohabitants. The ability to constantly collect data from a home environment could provide thousands of observations per year for clinical analysis. Providing such a robust data set may allow people with gait impairment to live at home longer and more safely before transitioning to a care facility, have a reduced fall risk due to better prediction, and live a healthier life in old age.

Toilet grab bars were intended to facilitate independent and safe toilet transfer for people with different abilities. However, standard grab bars require too much effort from older adults who typically transfer to the toilet in a standing position rather than a sitting position. Among existing grab bars, grab bars on both sides of the toilet worked best for older adults because they allowed older adults to use both arms to get on and off the toilet. However, based on our observation, these grab bars were not effective to assist older adults to get in and out of the wheelchair. Additionally, these grab bars are too far apart that older adults have to use their shoulders rather than arms, which arise problems because shoulder are typically weaker than arms. This study intends to solve this problem by developing a new grab bar which would be safer, easier and more comfortable to use. Based on the literature review, analysis of existing grab bars and observation, a new concept of grab bars was generated and a functional prototype was constructed for user testing. The prototype was proved to be safe, easy and comfortable to use in the entire transfer process and it reduced the use of wheelchairs as well.

Despite the perceived importance of grab bars to facilitate aging-in-place and healthy aging, many community-dwelling older adults do not have them installed. The aim of this study was to investigate predictors of grab bar installation among well-educated community dwelling seniors. Data was collected quantitatively through an electronic survey of Oregon residents 50 years of age and older. The research analysis was completed using logistic regression with SPSS and qualitative analysis for the open questions. / Graduation date: 2012

The main goal of this research has been to investigate elderly people's needs, perceptions, fears, hopes, and expectation regarding elderly care, including ethical issues linked to assistive technologies. As faith seems to take an important place in how some elders face the aging process, the spiritual dimension was also included. Therefore, the research was conducted among 15 church congregants. Results show that most respondents fear the physical and mental decay due to aging, often resulting in becoming a burden to someone else, along with abandonment and lack of financial resources. Most ethnic groups perceive that other cultures take better care of their elders than their own. Faith seems to offer a great support, as it gives the confidence that divine power will always be there for them even beyond death. The respondents in this research suggest that guidance should be provided in a more structured way, more focus should go on the youth and the elderly, more activities should be organized and practical information should be shared. Regarding the ethical issues of assistive technologies, they are not well informed about their possibilities but acknowledge their potential usefulness, combined with human care. They don't want technology to be too intrusive in their daily life, but they are willing to sacrifice (part of) their privacy for more (medical) safety. There is a general concern that the access to qualitative care would be depending on financial resources.

While a lot of efforts have been on outdoor intelligent systems, internal living environment system that suits the occupancy’s behaviour has not received much attention. The intelligent living environment designed in this study has three components; the physical world (environment), the database and the decision maker. The study sought to design a model that senses ever changing home conditions such as lights, doors and windows. Other variables that were looked at include, but not limited to the number of people in the room and inside thermodynamics and human activity. Global information such as temperature, gas or electricity usage and time of the day will also be received by the system through various sensing facilities. The information will be sent to a rules engine for a decision on an appropriate action to be taken. The action may include just turning off the lights, in the case of a mild abnormality or a high alert to an emergency response unit in a most severe case. The study proposes a context aware and proactive neural networks control system to control a living environment with a main focus on the aged citizens living alone. The proposed living environment was not developed to an actual or “mock” building containing a representation of subset of sensors, actuators and controllers as used in the actual systems due to lack of funding. However, the study will report on the modelling and simulation of the home system variables based on the chosen Artificial Intelligent technique using MATLAB/SIMULINK. These results indicate a possibility of implementing the designed living environment to increase the resident’s security. / Electrical and Mining Engineering / M. Tech. (Engineering: Electrical)