Virtual Perimeter Breach Detection Using Wearable Tracking
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Assisted living facilities face challenges in effectively managing and monitoring the movement of residents within their perimeters, particularly in preventing unintentional or intentional breaches, which can lead to safety risks and increased oversight needs.
Innovation Solution
A method utilizing wearable devices and a computer system to define and dynamically adjust individual and group access perimeters within an assisted living facility, tracking resident locations, and sending real-time alerts to care providers when residents breach their assigned boundaries, allowing for timely intervention and reduced physical barriers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If physical barriers are used to prevent resident movement, then safety is improved, but resident freedom and mobility are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces physical barriers (mechanical confinement) with an electronic monitoring system comprising wearable devices, location tracking technology, and a computer system that defines virtual perimeters. This substitution maintains safety through real-time breach detection while eliminating the need for physical restrictions on resident movement.
2Reliability
If constant supervision is implemented, then safety is improved, but operational complexity and resource requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service monitoring where the wearable device automatically tracks the resident's location and the computer system autonomously determines perimeter breaches. This eliminates the need for constant human supervision while maintaining continuous safety monitoring through automated alert generation when breaches occur.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback through real-time location tracking and automatic breach detection. The computer system continuously receives location data from wearable devices, compares it against defined perimeters, and provides immediate feedback via alerts to care providers when breaches occur, enabling responsive intervention without constant direct supervision.
3Reliability
If individual access perimeters are customized for each resident, then safety and comfort are improved, but system complexity and configuration time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality by allowing customization of access perimeters for individual residents or specific groups based on their unique needs, safety requirements, and comfort preferences. Different residents can have different perimeter definitions, enabling personalized safety management while maintaining a unified system architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements dynamic perimeter configuration that can be adjusted based on time of day, resident activity patterns, and care provider schedules. Perimeters can be modified remotely without requiring system reconfiguration, allowing flexible adaptation to changing resident needs while simplifying the configuration process through centralized control.
Data Source
AI summary
One variation of a method for detecting breach events by residents of an assisted living facility includes: defining an access perimeter containing a first space and excluding a second space within a facility, the first space and the second space separated by a door; assigning the first individual access perimeter to a first resident, in a set of residents, occupying the facility; maintaining the door in an unlocked state by default during a first period of time; tracking locations of resident wearable devices associated with residents, in the set of residents, within the facility during the first period of time; and, in response to a first location of a first resident wearable device associated with the first resident falling inside the individual access perimeter and within a threshold distance of the door at a first time during the first period of time, triggering the door to enter a locked state.