Independent living at home is the ideal for every aging person. But a fall or other health-threatening incidents can change everything rapidly.

The wearable “panic buttons” introduced in the late 1980s were a great advance. But they only work if people actually wear them and can reach the button in an emergency. Today there are passive wearables that automatically detect falls, and camera-based systems to monitor elder safety.

Coming from a 40-year career in the semiconductor and wireless communication field, Rafi Zack decided to find a better alternative. “People aren’t devoted to wearing small devices 24/7, and camera-based systems are an invasion(侵犯)of privacy,” he points out, “The most challenging aspect is a fall. How fast we can detect a fall matters because the medical situation worsens quickly. Sometimes people stay on the floor for a long time. We have to find out how to solve that problem.”

Zack is a co-founder, CEO and vice president of R&D at EchoCare Technologies which has developed ECHO (Elderly Care Home Observer), a cloud-connected monitor based on radar technology and machine learning.

Because radar sees through walls, one ECHO unit fixed on the ceiling or wall can monitor one person (or two persons, in a future version) in a standard-sized apartment in a senior living facility. The device detects falls, breathing difficulties, drowning in a bathtub and other dangerous events. It gives out warnings to potential health worsening conditions by continuously monitoring and analyzing the person’s location, posture(姿势), motion and breath. EchoCare tested the device in the United States, Japan, Australia and Israel. ECHO was certified(认证)in 2019 in Japan with the most aging population in the world.

“Bathrooms were the main testing area where about 17,000 deadly accidents happen annually.” said SMK Director and Executive Vice President Tetsuo Hara. “Bathroom makers, home security service providers and nursing homes are highly interested in EchoCare’s solution.” Zack noted, “As more and more elder people live alone as a result of social distancing, there is an increased need to monitor them without the burden of wearables or privacy-invading cameras.”

Feeling a hug from each other via the internet may be a possibility in the near future. A research team led by City University of Hong Kong recently developed a wireless, soft e-skin that can both detect and deliver the sense of touch, and form a touch network allowing one-to-multiuser interaction. It offers great potential for improving the distance touch communication.

While there are numerous devices in the market to simulate (模拟) the sense of touch in the virtual world, they provide only touch sensing or touch response. The uniqueness of the novel e-skin is that it can perform self-sensing and touch reproducing functions on the same interface.

The e-skin is a 7cm×l0cm, 4.2mm-thick device containing 16 flexible actuators (驱动器), a microcontroller unit, a Bluetooth module, and other electronics on a flexible circuit board. The actuator serves as the core part of the e-skin. Once the actuator is pressed and released by a force, a current is produced to provide electrical signals that are turned into digital signals by a converter (转换器) and then sent to another e-skin via Bluetooth. When the signals are received, a current is caused to reproduce the touch response on the receiver’s e-skin through mechanical vibration (振动). The process can be reversed to deliver vibrations from the receiver’s e-skin to the corresponding actuator of the sender’s.

The e-skin can communicate with Bluetooth devices and send data through the internet with smartphones and computers to perform long-distance touch, and to form a touch Internet of Things (IoT) system, where one-to-one and one-to-multiple touch delivery could be realized. Friends and family in different places could use it to “feel” each other. This form of touch overcomes the limitations of space and greatly reduces the sense of distance in human communication.

Next, the research team will focus on practical applications for people with visual disability, who could wear the e-skin to gain remote directional guidance and read Braille messages.

Love is one of life’s greatest motivators. That is exactly what inspired Zack to design a fully electric off-road wheelchair for his girlfriend suffering from paralysis (瘫痪).

Like most wheelchair-users, Cambry has always been restricted to the pavement for most of her adult life. Aside from that, using a wheelchair across long distances makes her shoulders ache. Zack Nelson, her boyfriend, wanted to give her the ability to explore more places conveniently, so he made a special wheelchair for her, which would make it possible.

Zack began by combining two electric bikes and installing a seat in the centre. It worked! Cambry experienced a whole new level of freedom using her new “ride”, and she couldn’t be more grateful to Zack for coming up with it. Fast forward to a year later, Cambry and Zack tied the knot. They also began mass-production of the special wheelchair. Throughout that time, they improved the original design to make it a more reliable off-roader.

While similar vehicles already exist in the market, they said they’re either slow or cost as much as a car. Cambry and Zack wanted to build something quick, light, super long-range, and affordable at the same time. However, coming up with that kind of electric off-roader wasn’t easy.

The toughest challenge when developing the special wheelchair is the price. “We wanted to create something that is affordable for everyone. Finding quality components, and a simple enough design at the cheapest price possibly took quite a bit of time,” said Zack. “But I think we have something now that everyone will be able to enjoy, at a fraction (少量) of the cost of other ‘off-road wheelchairs’ currently on the market.” Another great thing about the vehicle is that it’s silent. Its rider will have no difficulty chatting with their companion while using it. Cambry and Zack are very happy with the fully-electric machine, and they hope that other wheelchair-users will also benefit from it.