Japan’s Tagged World Project develops in-home RFID to monitor elderly
Japan’s Tagged World Project has developed an in-home RFID system designed to determine the “living willingness” of the elderly.
The system involves tagging various objects around an elderly person’s dwelling that are read via an RFID reader sewn into the occupant’s slippers. Every time the elderly person interacts with the tagged objects (for instance, every time a chair is moved or the bed is made), a record of that interaction is recorded to determine whether he or she is displaying a healthy level of activity.
Tagged World Project puts the emphasis on how the action is being performed, not just what is being performed. The idea is that through monitoring an elderly person’s tasks like cleaning and making his or her bed, one can determine the general level of physical and emotional health.
According to Tagged World, if living willingness is high, the elderly move obstacles such as chairs to clean every place of the room. If, for instance, it is clear from the data that the elderly person is no longer putting forth an effort to keep his or her house clean, it could be time to intervene with assisted living. It is more or less a way of checking in on your relatives without physically prying.
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