Jozefa is an elderly Alzheimer patient. She lives alone in a service flat. Sometimes at night she leaves her flat out of confusion, seeking stimuli. This puts herself in danger and worries her daughter. The daughter would like a system which keeps her mother inside and alerts the carefgivers if she does wander outside of the flat at night (8PM 'till 8AM). She wants this so her mother can still live on her own. The building, where the staff stays at night, is about 50m from her flat.

We tried to design a system which is the least intrusive for Jozefa and the staff. Using a layout of motion sensors which each trigger different action, she is nudged to stay inside. As a last resort, the staff will be alerted if she does wander outside.

The model we made is a small scale model, just to demonstrate. In the real context, the concept stays the same, but the sensors would be motion sensors and the real TV and lamp would turn on.

Supplies

Cardboard
Glue
Cutterknife
1x RGB LED
2x Microbits
2x Batterymodules
4x Batteries
2x Cables
1x Relaymodule
1x LED Module

(In the real model, there would be 3 motion sensors as input, a lamp, a tv, an LED sign and a small speaker as output)

Step 1: Step 1: Make Floorplan

We started by making a floorplan of the flat. This way we could demonstrate an accurate scenario. The maquette is just simple cardboard with glue

Step 2: Step 2: Connecting the Circuit

We connected the Relay module to the first Microbit. from there we could connect the LED (simulates the stop sign at the exit, signifying that she is doing something "wrong"). This module should also output a signal to the staff when the second sensor is triggered.

The second Microbit is connected to the LED Module (simulates the TV turning on, nudging her to watch her favourite show instead of leaving the flat). There should also be an LED simulating a lamp turning on, but we could not include it because of limited resources.

Step 3: Step 3: Coding the Modules

Next the modules were programmed so the right input corresponded to the correct outputs.

The first module corresponds to the TV-Lamp turning on. The second module corresponds to the alert system.

Step 4: Result

The result is a system which works with 3 triggers. The first trigger goes off when the patient leaves the bedroom. It automatically turns on the TV on the last 10 minutes of their favourite programme and a light, so the attention is grabbed and removed from the flat exit. After 10 minutes, she turns the TV and light off, as the end of the programme is part of her ritual to signify it's time to sleep. However, if she does have the urge to leave the flat, there are a second and third trigger. The second trigger goes off when she opens the front door. It turns the attention to a red STOP sign using an LED and sound. This way, she could still go back without the staff being alerted. If, however she does wander further, the 3rd trigger goes off and the staff is alerted she has left the room.