The government is inevitably taking measures against the elderly first.
Noboribetsu City CSW will start full-scale monitoring with tablet terminals in July.
The Noboribetsu City Council of Social Welfare (Chairman: Masayuki Yamada) will begin full-scale implementation of a watch-over network project using tablet terminals in July. The terminals will be loaned to senior citizens living alone at home.The system allows users to confirm their safety by having one-touch operation of information such as waking up, going to bed, and going out.
Users commented, "It was difficult to get used to it at first, but it gradually became a habit to operate it," and "I feel like someone is always watching over me." Family members also responded, "It is difficult to go see them every day, but with the terminal, they feel safe because they can contact us immediately if something happens.
As engineers will understand, the key concept is to send a ping to confirm life and death. It must be very gratifying to know that the system is helping to create a sense that someone is watching over you. I think it would be a nice touch to add an optional system that would allow family members to send out video letters and other updates on their recent activities.
In watching over the elderly, I feel that the level of watchfulness differs between those who have advanced dementia and those who do not, although I am not sure if it is appropriate to call them "healthy" or not. For healthy people, all they need to know is "when, what, and how. For those with dementia, it is necessary to know "when, what, where, and how". In this case, GPS may be the answer. However, constantly transmitting and communicating the current location consumes a lot of battery power, so we can only hope that IoT devices will evolve.
