PFI: TT: An Intelligent Homecare System to Assist Older Adults Who Age in Place

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is that the proposed Intelligent Homecare System (IHS) will allow home-bound older adults to remain safe and healthy within their own homes, therefore benefiting the growing elderly population in the United States. If the PFI project is successful, the IHS is expected to offer the following functions. First, by monitoring older adults’ well-being in terms of activities of daily living (ADLs), physical and subjective well-being, and emergency situations, the IHS will promote older adults' health, safety and independence. Second, by better connecting older adults with their caregivers and better managing their daily life, the IHS will help bring peace of mind and reduce the cost of healthcare to family members. Third, with a better tool for home healthcare, formal caregivers can enjoy improved productivity, reduced cost of operation and increased revenue. This research will also improve the educational environment at Oklahoma State University in disciplines such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, embedded computing, and machine learning, as well as in non-STEM disciplines such as gerontology and entrepreneurship. This proposed project aims to develop a prototype of the IHS and prepare it for commercialization. The research addresses the challenges in deploying the IHS for real world applications. The major research tasks are: 1) designing a prototype of IHS and a wearable device; 2) developing a collaborative and multimodal activity recognition algorithm; 3) developing the IHS functions for well-being monitoring, intervention, and communication; 4) developing the IHS capabilities to overcome the psychosocial barriers associated with advanced ages. The novelties of the proposed work include: 1) The IHS leverages its sensing capability and local AI to understand the daily activities of older adults, which provides the basis for health monitoring, intervention, and communication with caregivers. 2) The IHS assesses the physical and subjective well-being of older adults through anomaly detection and clinical interview. 3) The IHS proactively engages the at-risk older adults to deliver timely interventions through health coaching and daily life management. 4) The IHS offers AI-assisted intelligent messaging and telehealth to connect the older adults with caregivers, therefore promoting the socioemotional well-being of older adults. 5) The IHS overcomes the psychosocial barriers by developing technologies for age-friendly human machine interface (HMI), learning and adaptation, and privacy protection. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.