Combining cell phones and WSNs for preventing accidents in smart-homes with disabled people

Abstract

Smart homes provide automatic services through a combination of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and wireless devices that allow monitoring operations in the home. These smart homes have been increasingly studied not only by the academic community but also by industry on account of the great potential they have, especially in applications that can help people with some type of physical disability such as visual or hearing impairment. This kind of application can give them independence and make their lives safer and more comfortable. Thus, in this paper we propose a Health Smart Home system for disabled people that can warn them about possible accidents that can occur in a particular location of their house. In other words, the system anticipates possible accidents that may occur somewhere in the house. We implemented a preliminary prototype that monitors rooms and issues a warning whenever it detects a potential hazard. Our proposal relies on low-cost cutting-edge technology and includes the following: Raspberry Pi boards, motion sensors, cameras and a central server. The server will handle the data that has been captured by sensors and send warnings through smartphones to people with physical impairments.