Unobtrusive in-home monitoring for aging in place: A scoping review (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Smart home technologies have been considered essential interventions that enable older adults to maintain wellness and independence at home. OBJECTIVE The main purpose of the present investigation is to classify recent smart home technologies that monitor older adults’ health and to architecturally describe these technologies as they are used in older adults’ homes. METHODS The scoping review method was employed to identify key characteristics of in-home monitoring technologies for older adults. The method can be used to summarize underexplored research areas and determine the nature of specific topics, identifying research gaps that remain after previous studies. RESULTS A total of thirty research articles were finally included and used in the study and two overviews of in-home monitoring technologies were included: (1) features of smart home technologies, and (2) sensor locations and sensor data. First, all of the reports reviewed (N=30) discussed how sensor technologies can be used to monitor older adults’ activities, as well as how to analyze and detect daily activity anomalies through machine learning algorithms. The present scoping review found six functions of in-home monitoring technology among the reviewed papers: daily activities, abnormal behaviors, cognitive impairment, falls, indoor personnel positioning, and sleep quality. Second, The present scoping review found 16 types of sensor technologies described in the 30 research reports reviewed. The most common data types encountered were Passive Infrared (PIR) motion sensors (n=20) and contact sensors (n=19), and were used to monitor human behavior such as bodily presence and time spent on activities. CONCLUSIONS This research provided a key summarization of in-home monitoring technologies, an underexplored research area in the field of aging in place. This wide-ranging synthesis demonstrates that in-home monitoring technologies within older adults’ homes play an essential role in aging in place in that the technology monitors older adults’ daily activities and identifies various health-related issues.