Video Surveillance For Elderly Monitoring And Safety
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Elderly parents’ daycare is important and at the same time a challenging concern for busy persons. And the truth is that someday you too will have elderly care duties and safety concerns.
In this article, we introduce one of the best solutions for elderly care management. Video surveillance of seniors are an effective measure for remote monitoring of elderly.
Think of it: caregivers and care centers can be a potential source of abuse of your old parent. What will you do if your old parent is alone at home? How will you provide domestic security for them? Indeed, video surveillance can be an ideal solution for senior’s safety.
Now, let’s see how seniors home monitoring technology works and discover their benefits.
1. Health and safety issues of the elderly
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According to the National Council on Aging, over 80% of older adults have at least one chronic disease, and 77% have at least two. However, chronic diseases are not the only concerns of elderly.
Falling
One of the most common problems of elderly adults is falling. Each year millions of elder people are treated for falls. More importantly falling leads to serious physical injuries. According to O’Loughlin’s “Incidence of and risk factors for falls” article, falling once doubles the chances of falling again.
See here for suggestions of smartwatches with fall detection feature.
Heart diseases and stroke
Heart diseases and stroke is another common problem. The vascular disease in the heart and brain can occur as we age.
Alzheimer’s disease
Elderly people are more affected by Alzheimer’s disease/dementia. The disease causes high emotional cost for senior adults and their family members.
Drug and alcohol abuse
Thought it can sound odd but drug and alcohol abuse are also common problems for elderly adults. For the reason that elderly often seek pain reliefs, they are becoming addicted to drugs. Substance and alcohol abuse are concerns for senior health. This is because of possible interactions with prescription medication, their impact on overall health, and the increased senior health risks.
Elder abuse
Frankly, elder abuse is one of the most important elderly health and safety problem. A 2017 “Elder abuse prevalence in community settings” study estimated that, over the past year, 15.7% of people aged 60 years and older were subjected to some form of abuse.
Moreover, according to WHO, only 1 in 24 cases of elder abuse is reported, in part, because older people are often afraid to report cases of abuse to family, friends, or to the authorities.
Other well-known problems are a bad vision, hearing and sensory problems, depression, mental and emotional changes. Even more, memory problems lead to simple forgetfulness about usual daily tasks.
2. What you need to know about video surveillance
No doubt, that there are many ways of preparing safe home for senior relatives. But as you may guess, video surveillance is an effective way of elderly remote home monitoring.
This is quite simple and affordable way that enables you to track every moment of your loved one, be sure about safety issues. And which is the more important, you will know whether the caregiver does the job as required.
Video surveillance system helps to get safety information and alarms on your computers, smartphones or tablets. So, you can take appropriate actions in case of emergency.
Video surveillance statistics
The fact is that video surveillance is a growing market.
Let’s look at some statistics to understand the trends of video monitoring.
In 2015, the security technology and services market generated about 75.6 billion U.S. dollars in revenue worldwide.
Security device shipments are forecast to reach 489 million units in 2018 and 709 million units in 2019 globally. From 2014-2017, they grew from 41 million units to 400 million units globally, according to Statista.
Demand for video surveillance equipment is likely to continue growing rapidly. However, price competition will remain intense. The world market will grow at an annual rate of less than 7% (IHS Markit).
How does video surveillance system work?
You may wonder how elderly monitoring technology will help you care about old people. Let me show you how this works.
The surveillance cameras are connected to a central system. They send a closed signal to the receiving monitor. Then, this enables it to observe the given information.
Video surveillance cameras
Home video monitoring cameras are small and easy to set up, can be placed almost anywhere. Moreover, the installation doesn’t require any specific technical skill but does require a high-speed internet connection.
Here is one more important thing: before installing any type of security camera in your home, you should discuss the solution with your senior relatives, and ask for their permission.
Also, you must also study related laws and legal restrictions on video surveillance.
How to choose the best video surveillance camera?
The features of elderly monitoring cameras vary a lot. But here are some advice for you.
The most improved and effective ones have the following features, which you should consider while choosing a video surveillance system:
wide-view angles
HD quality video so you can see everything clearly
night vision
built-in motion
sound detection, that notifies you in case of emergencies
two-way connection that lets you talk and listen
video recording option, that saves past video to a cloud, so you can rewind and review what you missed
digital zoom – so you can zoom in for a closer look
sound and motion alert signals to your smartphone
Types of video surveillance cameras
There are two basic types of video surveillance cameras:
Analogue cameras
They are connected to a digital video recorder with the help of a lens and a digital signal-processing chip. Video tape recorder records the signal from an analogue camera. Then converts it to a digital signal. After that, stores the signal on a computer or on a digital video recorder.
Digital video surveillance cameras
They use a digital signal to transmit the images. So, there is no need to convert them. They serve as a storage area where digital recordings are stored within a hard drive for future view. Digital images are available at up to 11 megapixels and they can stream the recording online allowing you to view your cameras in real time on any device.
These systems also have another benefit: they allow adding some more cameras. They come with its own web server that would otherwise come only with the digital video recorder on the analog system.
Another security cameras: they can be large or small, wired or wireless. Though wired cameras are difficult to install they have higher- quality picture than wireless cameras. Otherwise, wireless surveillance cameras are more flexible, but other devices can interrupt their signals.
How to choose video surveillance camera type?
You may wonder how to choose an appropriate video surveillance camera type. Here are some conditions to help you in this situation.
Careful installation. Installation procedure of cameras vary according to the model. Remember, if you didn’t have any experience with electronics you should ask professionals to help you. Another way is choosing the type that is easy to install by yourself.
Cameras situation place. Make sure that the important areas are clearly visible and the cameras will not shake and defect the image.
The need of recording the monitoring. If you just want to be sure of your senior’s safety then you shouldn’t need any recorder. But, if you want to know what is going on in specific areas over a long period of time, you will need to connect recording system to your camera.
Video surveillance using machine learning
Scientists develop new models of video surveillance, which are called omni-directional vision sensor-based systems. As studies detect those systems can accurately and efficiently collect, analyze, and transfer elderly activity information and provide health care in real-time.
Can you imagine how great is that?
Primary results show that the technique can improve the data analysis efficiency by 58.5% for object tracking. Moreover, for the human posture recognition application, the success rate can reach 98.6% on average.
Deep learning algorithms increase the efficiency of the video surveillance technology development. They raise accuracy through access to faster processing and the ability to learn automatically within video surveillance footage. In 2016 the first video surveillance equipment based on deep learning was installed for video analysis.
3. Old people video surveillance, yes or no
We all want our parents to be safe and happy.
You might think that video surveillance is the best decision for elderly monitoring. Though it has many advantages, it also has some bad sides.
The benefits of elderly video surveillance
As we have discussed, the benefits of video surveillance for elderly relatives’ health and safety are incredible. It is difficult to measure it with any parameter.
Let’s again briefly look at the good sides of elderly home monitoring.
Senior’s health and safety protection
Easy installation and use of monitoring systems
Domestic security for old people
Elderly alarm monitoring by remote broadcasting and instant signals
The issues of elderly video surveillance
Though video surveillance systems are popular and their demand is growing every year, they have some bad sides too.
Video surveillance privacy issues
Frankly, our elderly relatives may not be comfortable with being watched all the time and losing their independence and privacy. This could cause anxiety and depression if they don’t agree with this.
Video monitoring legal issues
As the installation of cameras is a major violation of someone’s privacy, it may be illegal in some countries. The things can get more complex if your elderly relative doesn’t want to get permission to use them.
Video surveillance system costs
The costs of monitoring systems installations are big and may require expensive devices. Indeed, this is not so good for your budget.
Cyber-security questions
It’s difficult to find dedicated cyber-security products for networking video surveillance equipment.
4. How much does the elderly monitoring system cost?
Video surveillance systems vary a lot. They have different features and possibilities. For this reason, their prices vary, too.
For example, there are DIY security systems that you can install by yourself and monitor your senior from your smartphone. The costs of this systems starts at $60.
Conversely, there are more complex monitoring systems that require professional installation and monitoring. In fact, the vast majority of people today prefer wireless setups. The reason is that they allow professional monitoring in the event of a break-in. These ones also provide an ability to view various rooms in the home from tablets or phones. The average cost for this is:
around $200 per camera,
$100 for installation, and
a monthly monitoring fee of around $30 per month
Unmonitored systems are available for similar costs, without the monthly follow up fee. Most people install a minimum of 4 cameras at a time, for a total cost of $1,200 at time of setup.
5. Top 6 video surveillance devices
We have tried to gather some effective and popular ones, which could be useful for you when making decision about their choice. Please make sure you also visit our early article on smart home technologies for the disabled to find out more options.
Video surveillance are a great help for busy people to maintain their parents’ health and safety.
In this article, we have looked at the statistical facts, features, types of video surveillance systems.
Also, we discussed the video monitoring pros and cons. In addition, we tried to approximately define how much they will cost and what are the most effective and popular video surveillance devices.
Therefore, hopefully, you can find useful information here that will help you effectively care for your beloved senior family members.
Please also visit our article home robots in modern life to get updated about other use cases of domestic robots in the human life.
