I-Living: An Open System Architecture for Assisted Living

Advances in networking, sensors, and embedded devices have made it feasible to monitor and provide medical and other assistance to people in their homes. Aging populations will benefit from reduced costs and improved healthcare through assisted living based on these technologies. However, these systems challenge current state-of-the-art techniques for usability, reliability, and security. This is a particular challenge for open and extensible systems that combine software and hardware from many vendors and provide information to diverse clinicians. In this paper we present the I-Living architecture for assisted living that allows independent parties work together in a dependable, secure, and low-cost fashion with predictable properties. Our approach is based on an Assisted Living Service Provider (ALSP) who provides a server that collects and maintains encrypted assisted persons (APs)' records. Our ALSP can be a third party distinct from APs, communication providers, and clinicians; or it can be part of an ISP, hospital or similar enterprise. We have explored the architecture by developing a collection of applications and implementing them in a prototype system. Our system shows the feasibility and opportunity of an open approach to assisted living systems.