GAiST project: Self-determined living in old age through smart home technology
How can older people live independently in their own homes for a long time? The University of Siegen is investigating this question together with partners from research, industry and practice in the GAiST (Happy Ageing with Smart Living Technologies) project. The aim is to use modern medical products and smart home technologies to increase the quality of life, safety and care efficiency of independent living in old age. As part of the project, 30 residential units in two senior centers will be equipped with medical measuring instruments and intelligent smart home sensor technology to support residents in their everyday lives. GAiST is a sub-project of the SmartLivingNEXT technology program and is supported by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) with a funding volume of 2.6 million euros.
Sensor technology as an extension of one's own abilities
"Unlike in traditional care homes, the residents live in their own apartments with the practice partners and retain their independence there. We use technology to help them live independently for as long as possible - that's what makes the project so special," explains Dr. Christian Weber. Together with Prof. Dr. Kai Hahn, he heads the Siegen project team, which is based in the Medical Informatics and Graph-based Systems (MIGS) working group at the University of Siegen and deals with the collection and intelligent analysis of vital data.
Specifically, various smart home products from the field of ambient assisted living (AAL) are being installed in the 30 residential units by the partners OFFIS e.V. and escos automation GmbH. These include motion sensors that recognize activity patterns, fall detection systems that send immediate alerts in the event of falls and warning systems for forgotten hotplates, for example. "These are virtually digitally supported extensions of our own abilities," says Dr. Weber. At the same time, medically certified smartwatches, scales and blood pressure monitors regularly record vital data such as heart rate, weight and ECG signals. This overview is also intended to help people understand, promote and actively work on their own health. The well-being of the residents is the top priority during the study: "It was clearly stated in our joint ethics application that we will not make any video or audio recordings so that people can continue to feel safe and comfortable in their homes. All recorded medical data will also be evaluated anonymously," explains Dr. Mubaris Nadeem, research associate in the working group. "A good example of the benefits of our research is that residents are developing a more conscious relationship with their vital data," explains Dr. Nadeem. "We are already seeing positive changes in the way residents deal with this data and how they actively incorporate it into their lives." The Siegen working group is primarily concerned with medical data analysis: "Our aim is to investigate the correlation of the data, for example which vital signs were measured before a person fell. With these values, doctors could make more precise diagnoses," explains Prof. Hahn.
Greater service benefits through networked data
In the long term, the data should help to develop and refine new medical services for older people. To this end, all sensitive personal data collected as part of the project will be analyzed completely anonymously to protect the privacy of residents. Based on the real results, artificial data sets are then generated using a patient data simulator. This data is then made available to various players in the industry in the cloud-based open source environment "SmartLivingNEXT Dataspace" for the further development of medical services.
Data analysis using artificial intelligence planned
The GAiST project partners have now discussed their experiences, challenges and future steps at a consortium meeting. In the long term, the researchers are planning to develop a business model to give other care facilities access to the system and to further develop smart home technologies for age-appropriate living. "Our core task for the next step is also protected patient data analysis using artificial intelligence. Here, we differentiate between the creation of algorithms and the actual analysis. With the help of patient data simulators, we can use the artificially generated data to design "data-safe" algorithms that can be used to securely analyze and evaluate real patient data," says Dr. Weber. The automated recording of vital data not only serves as an aid in everyday life and for prevention, but also saves care facilities valuable time in administration. "All sensor technology - however good it may be - will never replace personal contact with residents. The time that carers save by automatically measuring vital signs will allow them to spend more time with people in the future - that is also one of our goals," explains Prof. Hahn.
Background
As a research partner, the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Oldenburg (OFFIS e.V.) is responsible for the installations in the facilities, the local storage of the data records and the analysis of the smart home data, among other things, and supports the exchange between practice and research together with the Hospital zum Heiligen Geist in Hamburg. The smart home sensor technology is also being provided by OFFIS and escos automation GmbH in Berlin. The test environment in the form of 30 senior citizens' apartments is provided by the Hospital zum Heiligen Geist and the Siegburg senior citizens' center. Both institutions coordinate communication with the partners and serve as the first point of contact for study participants. The IT service provider Materna Information & Communication SE from Dortmund is providing the GAIA-X-compliant SmartLivingNEXT dataspace and supporting the project with a study doctor who will be responsible for the medical management of the study. The project is expected to run until the end of 2026.
