A CUSTOMIZED AND PORTABLE COMPONENT-BASED FRAMEWORK FOR INTELLIGENT HOMECARE SYSTEM DESIGN WITH VIDEO AND PHYSIOLOGICAL MONITORING MACHINERIES

Abstract

This study proposes a customized and reusable component-based design framework based on the UML modeling process for intelligent home healthcare systems. All the proposed functional components are reusable, replaceable, and extensible for the system developers to implement customized home healthcare systems addressing different demands of patients and caregivers from healthcare monitoring aspects. The prototype design of the intelligent healthcare system based on these proposed components can provide the following features: (1) monitoring and recording videos of rehabilitation situations and patient behavior using multiple CCD cameras, which can be stored accordingly in an archive; (2) recording the patient's physiological data and corresponding treatment plan, which can be stored in an XML archiving database for caregivers' review; (3) automatically alerting patients to remind them of medication schedules or treatment plans, while recording the patient's treatment situations; (4) caregivers monitoring videos and physiological records of the patient's rehabilitation using handheld mobile devices via the Internet or wireless communication networks; and (5) caregivers and patients establishing alert mechanisms for the patients' physiological warning states. If the patient's physiological state suddenly deteriorates, the module would immediately alert caregivers by sending notification messages to their remote mobile devices or web browsers.