SIEMENS

Berlin 2020. Even though she is 80 years old and has a mild form of cardiovascular disease, Luise Müller doesn't want to move into a nursing home. On the other hand, she wants to have a certain sense of security. The solution? Luise opts for a sensor-laden band on her upper arm that keeps track of her vital signs and reports them to a wrist device. A wireless chip in the device transmits the data to a medical communications node, or Med-I-Box, in her apartment, which in turn is connected via Internet to a Telemedicine Center at Charité Hospital. In case of an emergency, such as an anomalous pulse reading, Luise will get help immediately. Best of all, she doesn't feel as though she's being watched. She practically forgets about the equipment because everything operates automatically.

All of this is technically possible, but no system with this combination of features has been implemented yet. Nevertheless, such a system is the objective of experts at Siemens Corporate Technology (CT) in Berlin and Munich who are involved in a project called “Smart Senior—Intelligent Services for Seniors.” The project is being funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research with €25 million from 2009 to 2012. An additional €18 million is being contributed by industry partners, including €5 million from Siemens. “We worked with physicians to develop three application scenarios,” says Dr. Daniel Reznik, head of hardware development at CT in Berlin. The scenario subjects range from healthy people to patients who suffer from chronic pain or require dialysis. “There is currently no sensor technology that meets the demands of all the scenarios. What's more, it is a challenge to get all the medical devices to work together seamlessly and be user-friendly,” says Reznik.

In cooperation with Siemens and other participating companies, Reznik is developing various devices that can be combined depending on the severity of an illness. He expects the first prototypes to be ready in mid-2011. One of them will be a special wrist device that can determine its wearer's location at home or—linked with a smart phone—on the road. It has a position sensor that can measure acceleration. Initially the sensor records typical movement patterns like walking, climbing stairs, and lying down. This data is stored at home in the communications node for non-medical data—the AAL Box (Ambient Assisted Living). The wrist device is always connected to this box via WLAN, allowing the intensity of movement to be compared with stored data. For example, the equipment can detect when a senior has fainted if the usual micro-movements of the arms stop during sleep.

At CT in Munich, developers are building an initial sensor platform for the wrist device which includes a position sensor, an OLED display, and a WLAN wireless processor. “We're using an extremely energy-efficient wireless standard,” says Dr. Asa MacWilliams, who is overseeing software development. “The chip is programmed to stay switched off most of the time and only be active for a few milliseconds when transmitting vital signs.” To monitor patients suffering from chronic pain, the wrist device is combined with a pulse oximeter that can measure the patient's temperature, pulse, and blood oxygenation, the latter through the absorption of red and infrared light in the blood. For this application, CT researchers in Berlin are developing a “Smart Band-Aid,” which is worn on the left upper arm. It consists of a flexible film with an integrated optical transmitter and receiver as well as circuitry to evaluate the data. The device is the size of a credit card and consumes so little power that it can be operated for 100 hours with a lithium-polymer film battery.

Siemens researchers in Berlin are also working on algorithms for processing and transmitting data. For example, the pulse value is transmitted from the Smart Band-Aid to the wrist device via the body itself through skin conductivity. “Although the range is very limited because of the high resistance of skin, it's enough to transmit data between the upper arm and the wrist at low data speeds,” says Stefan Nerreter, an expert in optoelectronics. This is simpler and safer than using WLAN.

Comprehensive Security. Since the data relates to individuals, it must be protected from unauthorized access. “We're developing a comprehensive security architecture that satisfies the data-protection requirements from the sensors to the communication nodes and from the local network at home to the servers in the telemedicine center,” says Dr. Fabienne Waidelich from CT in Munich, who is responsible for the system's data security. Access to the data is also stringently regulated and logged. Waidelich emphasizes that part of the objective is to collect no more data than absolutely necessary and to ensure that users have ultimate control over their medical measurements at all times.

The devices must also be capable of being intuitively operated. “The development of uniform user interfaces focuses on the specific requirements of users,” says usability expert Dr. Ines Steinke, who relies on multimodal concepts. In an emergency, for instance, a user can get help either through the emergency button on the wristband or by speaking directly with the Telemedicine Center, in which case the smart phone acts as a hands-free speaking system. These technologies, including data transfer to the Charité Hospital in Berlin, will be tested by students in a CT demonstration lab in 2011. The technology will also be tested by healthy seniors in 35 apartments belonging to Potsdam-based Gewoba, a property management company.

Experts are sure that in 20 years it will hardly be possible to imagine older people and many others with chronic illnesses going about their daily lives without aids such as a wristwatch or a Smart Band-Aid linked with a communications infrastructure. As nearly invisible systems, these technologies will help seniors stay mobile, feel secure, and live at home longer on their own.