Indoor and Outdoor Mobility Monitoring for People Living with Dementia: Improving Their Independent Activity by Integrating Open Interface Sensors

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2025 Jun 26:328:293-297. doi: 10.3233/SHTI250722.

Abstract

People living with dementia often experience mobility challenges and social isolation, which can impede their ability to perform activities of daily living independently. This paper presents the design and deployment of an open-source software-based context-aware support system, e.g., Home Assistant, integrated with a network of indoor and outdoor off the shelf sensors. The objective is to assist people living with dementia by sending timely, personalized reminders to enable independence and social contact. The proposed system also aims to reduce the care burden on family and caregivers by providing peace of mind. Initial findings demonstrate the technical feasibility of the approach and in assisting with activities of daily living with non-intrusive, sensor-assisted support and monitoring.

Keywords: Activities of Daily Living (ADL); People Living with Dementia (PLwD); Sensors; text-to-speech (TTS).

MeSH terms

  • Activities of Daily Living*
  • Dementia* / physiopathology
  • Dementia* / rehabilitation
  • Humans
  • Independent Living*
  • Monitoring, Ambulatory* / instrumentation
  • Monitoring, Ambulatory* / methods
  • User-Computer Interface*