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By Barbara Knecht

“Smart” labs for living

Several universities are developing smart houses, or “intelligent environments,” as they are sometimes called, that go far beyond the state of the luxury market. And like so many other things, it is the aging boomers who are driving that research. There are nearly 80 million of them, and as everyone knows, they are living longer, healthier lives than any previous generation. Now they are poised to flood the health-care and social-security systems. Smart-house technology is one way to respond to diminishing cognitive and physical functioning, which currently lands people in assisted-living and nursing homes.

The state-of-the-art technology today straddles what is and what will be. The basic tools of smart houses exist: sensors (audio, motion, and biological); video cameras; wiring (Category 5, coaxial, fiber optic); wireless (radio frequency [RF] and infrared [IR]) communications; devices (appliances, interactive monitors, speakers); and computers. The sensors collect information. Communication lines route data and information among the devices and the computer. The computer analyzes data and sends instructions out to the devices. This is basic technology that already exists in the security and HVAC systems in many houses. Building on this, the possibilities envisioned in these research centers are much more sophisticated.

Researchers are reaching for pervasive or ubiquitous computing, wherein tiny devices are invisibly embedded in the environment and seamlessly integrated with one another and the humans who benefit from them. They will fit in so naturally, be so intuitive and effortless, that people will no longer be aware that they are using computers. Instead of humans learning and adapting to computers, the computers will adapt to humans.

Researchers at the University of Rochester, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Colorado at Boulder, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), among others, are experimenting with sensors, cameras, and monitors installed in house labs to learn about physical and social environments and the patterns and habits of the occupants. The information is stored and analyzed by a computer (hidden or displayed) that can then use it to help people with preventive health care, alert remote family members to changes in living patterns, or remind the occupant to take medication or feed the fish.

The mission of the Smart Medical Home at the University of Rochester’s Center for Future Health (www.futurehealth.rochester.edu) is to study how a smart house can aid in the prevention and early detection of disease. According to Cecilia Horwitz, the center’s associate director, “Today, people over 65 use the health-care system six times more often than those under 65. We need to figure out ways, beyond diet and exercise, to keep people healthier longer. When a person visits a doctor, what can he or she really tell the doctor about their vital signs over the previous six months?”

In the Smart Medical House, the sensors and monitors can keep data on traditional vital signs, such as blood pressure and pulse and respiration, but will also measure the “new” vital signs, such as gait, behavior patterns, sleep patterns, general exercise, and rehabilitation exercise, among others. “Do you know that a change in gait can be an indicator of neurological disease or an oncoming stroke?” asks Horwitz. “Eventually ‘Chester,’ a computer that is an interactive medical-advising system, will be able to ask the occupant about that limp the sensors picked up and suggest a visit to the doctor if necessary. In theory, we should be able to catch a stroke three weeks before it happens!”