Bridging the Gap in Elderly Care in Old Age Homes: An Automated Lighting and Handrail Solution

Abstract

An old age home offers a place to live for the elderly and those in need who have either been abandoned by their families or require nursing care. They encounter numerous issues in old age homes because of inadequate funding, a lack of infrastructure, mental illness, a lack of emotional engagement between the elderly, a lack of societal support, etc. However, lacking adequate infrastructure amenities might result in numerous illnesses and accidents. Consequently, their independence and standard of living at home are limited. Building an automatic lighting system with handrails as part of our first-year course "Design Thinking For Social Innovation", allowed us to construct a modest prototype for a proper and simple lighting system to address this issue. We used the user-centered Design Thinking process to design this project, starting with accurate data collection and ending with developing a creative solution. This prototype has railings connected to infrared sensors, and numerous nearby ultrasonic sensors that can identify people and turn on the lights for any specified time when they are detected. The findings of this study show that the stakeholders' input on the solution was generally positive, and they even suggested several significant changes. Although this concept was not really implemented, it would be beneficial if it were in the future with more adjustments.