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A system for monitoring elderly and dependent people in nursing homes: The
e-monitor'age concept

Article · January 2013

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 A System for Monitoring Elderly and
Dependent People in Nursing Homes: the
E-monitor’age Concept

N. Cislo* , S. Arbaoui* , Y. Becis-Aubry* , D. Aubry* , Y.

Parmantier** 1 , P. Doré*** , T. Guettari*** , N. Ramdani*
* Univ. Orleans, ENSI Bourges, PRISME EA 4229, F45072, Orleans, France
** Univ. Orleans, Pôle Capteurs-Automatismes, F45072, Orleans, France
*** Legrand S.A. 128 Av. du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny Limoges F87045 Cedex

Abstract. To improve the quality of life in nursing homes, E-monitor’age project (2012-2015)
addresses the development of a monitoring system based on different types of innovating sensors
and a powerful self-learning decision process. This paper gives a brief description of the project
genesis, concept and architecture.
Keywords: Monitoring system, nursing homes, health smart homes, elderly and dependent peo-
ple, Building Management System, self-learning, activity models, ADL, E-monitor’age project

1. Introduction

Nowadays, developed and industrialized countries are facing impor-

tant problems regarding healthcare services, such as: increase in the
number of elderly people and in chronic diseases, demand for acces-
sibility into nursing homes. Simultaneously these countries have to
improve efficiency, individualization, equity and quality of life in this
kind of facilities. To that purpose, the E-monitor’age project aims at

1. Corresponding author: yves.parmantier@univ-orleans.fr 63, av. de Lattre de Tassigny

F18020 Bourges Cedex, FRANCE

Studia Informatica Universalis.

2 Studia Informatica Universalis.

providing a monitoring system based on different types of innovating

sensors and a powerful self-learning decision process. Supervising a
nursing home resident with E-monitor’age software will result in im-
proving comfort and safety while increasing the availability of nursing
staff [FNV10], [AST+ 07], [UFTS11]. This short paper is structured as
follows: the genesis of E-monitor’age project is considered in Section
2, the concept is introduced in Section 3. Section 4 gives the global
architecture of our monitoring system software.

2. E-monitor’age Project Genesis

Legrand company was involved in assisted living solutions at home

and also in nursing homes, and made experimentation by the 2006/2008
in the Creuse department (France), that has one of the highest propor-
tion of elderly people in Europe. The E-monitor’age project (2012-
2015) was born from the results of this trial, and also from the outcome
of Capthom Project (2006-2009) [BLER11] which was dedicated to the
management of electricity consumption in housing environment using
human presence detection.

3. E-monitor’age Project Concept

The concept of E-monitor’age project is based on one main observa-

tion: wearable devices or wearable sensors are an issue when used for
the monitoring of elderly and dependent people. Indeed, wearable de-
vices must be actually weared, by one (and only one) identified person;
this is not suitable for people with dementia. Furthermore the battery
charges of active sensors have to be checked regularly.
Our E-monitor’age project is meant for Smart Homes which already
integrate a Building Management System (BMS) (see figure 1). BMS
is a computer-based control system, installed in buildings, that controls
and monitors their mechanical and electrical equipment such as venti-
lation, lighting, power systems, fire systems, and security systems. The
E-monitor’age project global monitoring system is the result of joint
use of a BMS and a powerful decision process based on self-learning.
 E-monitor’age project 3

Figure 1: E-monitor’age project concept

4. E-monitor’age Project Architecture

The E-monitor’age project monitoring software uses data gathered

from innovating and heterogeneous sensors (including vision, sounds
and olfactory sensors), that are integrated to the grid. These sensors give
information on environment, on the behavior of residents and on some
physiological parameters such as breathing. Furthermore our system
has self-learning capabilities; it can generate and adapt activity models
(based on Activities of Daily Living) from detected situations. Through
data processing, and a decision support system, our software provides
robust and relevant analysis summarized on charts and reports in a tem-
plate well adapted to nursing staff (see figure 2). Finally, our project
includes testing on actual situation tests which will allow both quali-
tative and quantitative evaluation efficiency of the assistance provided
(security, prevention, traceability, response time optimization...).

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Urban Communauty of Bourges, the Generals
Councils of Cher and of Loir et Cher, the Regionals Councils of the Centre and of
Limousin, the French Industry Ministry, the European fund for regional development
FEDER (of Centre and Limousin) and the French Oseo (BPI) for their financial sup-
port within the framework of the E-monitora’ge project through the Competitiveness
Poles S2E2 and Elopsys.
 4 Studia Informatica Universalis.

Figure 2: E-monitor’age project architecture

References
[AST+ 07] Majd Alwan, Elena Brito Sifferlin, Beverely Turner, Steve
Kell, Peter Brower, David C Mack, Siddharth Dalal, and
Robin A Felder. Impact of passive health status monitoring
to care providers and payers in assisted living. Telemedicine
journal and e-health, 13(3):279–285, 2007.
[BLER11] Y. Benezeth, H. Laurent, B. Emile, and C. Rosenberger. To-
wards a sensor for detecting human presence and charac-
terizing activity. Energy and Buildings, 43(2-3):305–314,
2011.
[FNV10] Anthony Fleury, Norbert Noury, and Michel Vacher. Intro-
ducing knowledge in the process of supervised classification
of activities of Daily Living in Health Smart Homes. In The
12th IEEE Int. Conf. on e-Health Networking, Applications
and Services, pages 322–329. Ieee, July 2010.
[UFTS11] H Uchida, Y Fujiwara, K Taniguchi, and S Shinkai. The
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