How bluetooth tech can help elderly people stay independent [Video]

By Stephen Beech

Bluetooth-based technology could help elderly people stay independent, suggests new research.

A new “indoor positioning system” works better than GPS for tracking precise locations – and could be a boost to healthcare and other fields, say scientists.

They say the Bluetooth-based positioning system could offer healthcare systems a “low-energy, low-cost” method of tracking older adults’ mobility.

Study leader Professor Qiyin Fang, of McMaster University in Canada, explained that the Global Positioning System (GPS) is the dominant positioning technology today.

However, its use indoors is limited due to the difficulty in communicating with GPS satellites.

But Fang says the knowledge of a person’s position is “critical” for many real-time healthcare applications, including monitoring older adults in both their homes and long-term care facilities.

For the new study, published in the journal PLOS Digital Health, Fang and his colleagues designed, developed and validated a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)- based Indoor Positioning System (IPS).

The IPS measures and tracks specific users’ locations continuously …