Monitoring and Support for Elderly People Using LoRa Communication Technologies: IoT Concepts and Applications

Abstract

The pandemic declared by the World Health Organization due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) awakened us to a reality that most of us were previously unaware of—isolation, confinement and the massive use of information and communication technologies, as well as increased knowledge of the difficulties and limitations of their use. This article focuses on the rapid implementation of low-cost technologies, which allow us to answer a fundamental question: how can near real-time monitoring and follow-up of the elderly and their health conditions, as well as their homes, especially for those living in isolated and remote areas, be provided within their care and protect them from risky events? The system proposed here as a proof of concept uses low-cost devices for communication and data processing, supported by Long-Range (LoRa) technology and connection to The Things Network, incorporating various sensors, both personal and in the residence, allowing family members, neighbors and authorized entities, including security forces, to have access to the health condition of system users and the habitability of their homes, as well as their urgent needs, thus evidencing that it is possible, using low-cost systems, to implement sensor networks for monitoring the elderly using the LoRa gateway and other support infrastructures.

Implementation of a Room Temperature Control System in Patient Rooms with Positive COVID-19 Patients

“…In line with the stated (23) , the use of this innovative technology using a low-cost system, and ensuring the privacy of its users, therefore the implementation of this innovative technology is beneficial for patients confirmed positive for COVID-19 who must be self-isolated with a residential situation whose comfort is limited, such as without air conditioning. This innovative technology will help users, in this case, patients and families, to stay calm and be comfortable through situations of selfisolation.…”

Smart Monitoring and Controlling of Appliances Using LoRa Based IoT System

“…Another low-cost communication system was proposed by Lousado et al [43] for monitoring health conditions of elderly people at their homes using LoRa nodes, LoRa Gateway and The Things Network. Data collection module was developed using an ESP32/LoRa microcontroller with various environmental sensors to gather temperature, humidity, carbon monoxide, gas and smoke data.…”

Rural Healthcare IoT Architecture Based on Low-Energy LoRa

“…LoRa is a proprietary radio modulation technology licensed by Semtech Corporation. LoRa uses unlicensed ISM bands: 868 MHz in Europe, 915 MHz in North America, and 433 MHz in Asia [ 5 ]. The Bidirectional communication is done using Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) modulation, or as defined by [ 21 ] a Frequency Shift Chirp Modulation (FSCM), where each symbol is sent using a wide frequency band.…”

“…Another viable alternative to allowing data communication between the e-healthcare gateways and communication hub is the TVWS technology, as presented in [ 5 ], which is inspired by WiFi networks and is considered the most robust and economical solution in rural environment scenarios. With the transition from analog TV to digital transmission, the use of TVWS, which are the underutilized portions of terrestrial TV bands, for data communication purposes is becoming increasingly evident worldwide.…”

“…This paper proposes an architecture that would meet these requirements based on recent advancements in the Long Range (LoRa) network, fog computing, and low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite connectivity, using state-of-the-art energy efficiency. Such proof of concept for supporting older people using the LoRaWAN network, the Things Network, and ESP-32 microcontroller was already presented in [ 5 ] focused on providing real-time data, and in this paper, the concept is extended.…”