An Overview of Sensors, Design and Healthcare Challenges in Smart Homes: Future Design Questions.

Badziili Nthubu

doi:10.3390/healthcare9101329

Abstract

The ageing population increases the demand for customized home care. As a result, sensing technologies are finding their way into the home environment. However, challenges associated with how users interact with sensors and data are not well-researched, particularly from a design perspective. This review explores the literature on important research projects around sensors, design and smart healthcare in smart homes, and highlights challenges for design research. A PRISMA protocol-based screening procedure is adopted to identify relevant articles (n = 180) on the subject of sensors, design and smart healthcare. The exploration and analysis of papers are performed using hierarchical charts, force-directed layouts and ‘bedraggled daisy’ Venn diagrams. The results show that much work has been carried out in developing sensors for smart home care. Less attention is focused on addressing challenges posed by sensors in homes, such as data accessibility, privacy, comfort, security and accuracy, and how design research might solve these challenges. This review raises key design research questions, particularly in working with sensors in smart home environments.

Highlights

With the ever-increasing population and old age [1], the healthcare system is overwhelmed with caring for the elderly and vulnerable groups in hospitals, nursing homes and clinics [2]
Less attention was focused on user design approaches and healthcare data utilization in smart home environments between 2015 and 2017
The major contribution of this review is that it provides insights to the readers about challenges in sensors, design and smart healthcare devices in smart homes

Summary

Introduction

With the ever-increasing population and old age [1], the healthcare system is overwhelmed with caring for the elderly and vulnerable groups in hospitals, nursing homes and clinics [2]. The UK National Health Service (NHS) spends double as much on old-age retired people than on the working-class population [3]. In the US and China, the population over 65 is estimated to double by 2040 [4]. The world’s old-age population suffers from age-related conditions such as diabetes, obesity, depression, dementia, hypertension, stroke and Parkinson’s disease [5,6,7,8,9,10], making healthcare costly. Attention has been focused on exploring the provision of affordable and non-obtrusive ubiquitous sensing technologies in home environments [18]

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Conclusion