Team Develops System for the Nighttime Monitoring of Seniors With Dementia

Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) researchers have developed eNightLog, a nighttime monitoring system for seniors with dementia, to track their breathing and activities in bed for preventing falls or wandering off, reports Medical Xpress . The system, which was designed for Hong Kong nursing communities, will greatly improve the quality of life for seniors while enhancing the efficiency and lessening the workload of healthcare staff. The eNightLog incorporates event sequence tracking and various remote sensing and imaging technologies, using an innovative algorithm. Seventeen eNightLog systems have been installed and tested in a nursing community over two months for nighttime monitoring. A total of 380 incidences of seniors leaving bed alone were recorded, with 100 percent successfully detected and only 0.5 percent of incidents of false alarm occurring. The system also recorded 525 events of caregivers responding to nighttime wandering, for an accuracy rate of 100 percent. "Being a multi-sensing system and platform, eNightLog is greatly scalable in connecting with other devices, including wearable, non-contact, or remote-control ones," says PolyU's Eric Tam. "The further applications and development of eNightLog with advancing rehabilitation health technologies can be very promising."