An older man gets ready for bed at the end of a long day. As he lies down to go to sleep and shuts off the light an alarm goes off, alerting him to the fact that he forgot to take his last dose of medication. Sounds like something out of a science fiction movie doesn’t it? However scientists from the University of Grenada believe they can make such a system a reality.

They have created an Artificial Intelligence system that can be used to aid elderly people and other persons with special needs  in remembering to complete everyday tasks that if forgotten may negatively impact their day and their health.

The system makes use of sensors placed around an environment and small mobile devices that are programmed to alert users that they have neglected to do something.

The system makes use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) labels. These labels can be affixed to objects in the environment that an individual touches most frequently (a set of house keys for instance.) When these items are touched a signal is sent to either an offsite monitoring center or a computer located within the home.

Artificial Intelligence techniques (data mining and formal grammar) are used to access the daily activities of a subject and a list of essential tasks is complied (such as the taking of medication or remembering to take a cell phone before leaving home)

According to María Ros Izquierdo, from the Higher Technical School of Computer Engineering of the UGR, the system is designed to be helpful without being overly intrusive. She explains that the system does not significantly impact the daily life of the user but it is a great aid to both the subject and those people who help take care of them.

To evaluate the effectiveness of their system UGR researchers created an artificial environment, a “tagged world”. The rooms were set up to resemble that of a typical home environment and sensors were embedded at points all around the space. Volunteers took part in their experiments which sought to catalogue the behaviors of an individual so that an accurate “to do” list could be complied. They were then able to tests the function and the accuracy of their system and how it performed in real world situations.

In developing the system Ros Izquierdo and her colleagues hope to bring a new level of independence to the lives of the elderly, whom she notes often reject the aid of others , leading to incidents that might have been avoided.