Monitoring activity of an individual

#In the field of remote health monitoring, systems have been developed to enable an individual to contact medical professionals from their dwelling regarding a medical emergency. For example, in various systems, an individual is equipped with an emergency call button that initiates a call or signal to an emergency call center.

#The concept of such a system is that if an individual has a health related problem, they can press the emergency call button and emergency medical providers will respond to assist them. However, in some cases, the individual is unable to press the emergency call button, such as when an individual has fallen and cannot reach the button, is rendered unconscious, or is cognitively impaired.

#More complex systems have also been designed to monitor medication compliance or check health characteristics of an individual, such as heart rate, body temperature, blood chemistry, blood pressure, respiration, and the like. In these systems, the individual typically has to provide data periodically, such as by telephoning a monitoring center to provide health information to the center or by checking onto a web site or other data collection system.

#FIG. 1 illustrates a monitoring system embodiment.

#FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of base station data flow.

#FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate an embodiment of activity monitoring alert protocol management.

#Embodiments of the present invention can provide simple, cost effective, privacy-respecting, and relatively non-intrusive methods, devices, and systems for monitoring activity. Embodiments include systems to monitor the activity of an individual within a dwelling, such as a house, condominium, townhouse, apartment, or institution (e.g., hospital, assisted living facility, nursing home, prison, etc.)

#Embodiments can provide automated detection of changes in activity within a dwelling and initiation of alerts to third parties to check on and/or assist the individual where assistance is needed, thereby avoiding prolonged periods of time before assistance is provided. Embodiments also can utilize multiple sensors, multiple timers, and multiple rules to determine whether to initiate an action, thereby increasing certainty that an action is necessary and should be initiated. Embodiments also can utilize multiple sensors, multiple timers, and multiple rules to make statistical correlations between a number of sensors, thereby increasing certainty that the system is in satisfactory health.

#Embodiments can include a number of sensors that are connected to a variety of items within the dwelling to indicate the activity of the individual. For example, sensors can be connected to the client's bed to indicate that a client is lying on the bed. Sensors can also be used on drawers and cupboards to indicate when the individual opens a drawer or the door to a cupboard.