Aging of the population and the declining birthrate in Japan have produced severe human resource shortages in the medical and long-term care industries. Reportedly, falls account for more than 50% of all accidents in nursing homes. Recently, various bed-release sensors have become commercially available. In fact, clip sensors, mat sensors, and infrared sensors are used widely in hospitals and nursing care facilities. We propose a simple and inexpensive monitoring system for elderly people as a technology capable of detecting bed activity, aimed particularly at preventing accidents involving falls. Based on findings obtained using that system, we aim at realizing a simple and inexpensive bed-monitoring system that improves quality of life. For this study, we developed a bed-monitoring system for detecting bed activity. It can predict bed release using RFID, which can achieve contactless measurements. The proposed bed-monitoring system incorporates an RFID antenna and tags, with a method for classifying postures based on the RFID communication status. Experimentation confirmed that three postures can be classified with two tags, seven postures with four tags, and nine postures with six tags. The detection rates were 90% for two tags, 75% for four tags, and more than 50% for six tags.
Keywords: RFID; ambient sensors; home agent; life monitoring; quality of life.