Telefonica and Aerial launch Remote Care pilot programme
TORONTO: Telefónica, the Canadian company Aerial, and the municipality of Luciana have launched their first ‘Remote Care’ pilot project. The test, involving senior participants, is taking place in the aforementioned municipality located 39 kilometers from Ciudad Real, Spain.
The elderly selected to participate in this pioneering initiative are women who live alone, aged between 75 and 93, who suffer from various pathologies that affect their mobility, cognitive system, or emotional state. For 3 months, they will be monitored in their homes through the “Remote Care” solution, a multifunctional analysis platform that relies on the WiFi infrastructure installed in their homes, and sends caregivers alerts based on variables that have been previously established through a simple user application deployed on a mobile or tablet.
This solution, which does not require additional devices or wearables, is equipped with a motion detection interface for home WiFi, which uses existing wireless signals along with artificial intelligence and contextual analysis, to detect presence and motion. Its ability to identify and process movement allows the software to recognize human activity. Thanks to these features, the system is able to provide information on the activity of the seniors being monitored.
The AI engine, hosted in the cloud, is designed to share the details of the activities of the elderly with their relatives. The system also compares the data with their usual behavioral patterns, making it easier to monitor seniors in a remote manner in real-time.
Dionisio Vicente González, mayor of Luciana, prides himself on participating in the pilot project: “We are honored to take part in such an important initiative. Thanks to this new technology, the elderly can continue to live in their own homes without preoccupying their relatives, often concerned about the distance that keeps their loved ones apart. The solution is also easy to use, which solves the problem posed by traditional remote care systems for the elderly”.
Agustín Cárdenas, Telefónica Empresa´s Head for Digital Transformation, states that one of the main goals of the company is to place technology at the service of the people. “Therefore, we are committed to promoting innovative systems to address the problems that arise on a daily basis and that are as least intrusive as possible, such as ‘Remote Care’”.
Juan Felipe González Hidalgo, Chief Sales Officer and Seed Investor at Aerial, is originally from Castilla – La Mancha, the region where the trial is taking place. “As a local, I am very proud of the fact that we are testing our intuitive, passive solution for the elderly in Luciana, together with Telefónica. Our goal is to improve the quality of life for people who live alone and also provide peace of mind to their families. Thanks to the powerful, advanced AI, and a software that is fully compliant with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Aerial’s remote care solution connects families and provides peace of mind without the need for wearables or invasive video surveillance systems”.
According to the Spanish National Statistical Institute, over 2 million people over 65 years old live alone in Spain. Most of them are women. With the help of AI and the connectivity from the WiFi infrastructure of Telefónica, this solution is able to monitor anything from regular activities inside the perimeter of the house to sleep interruptions. The system creates continuous reports that are available to the family members, caregivers, and physicians.
We are looking here at an innovative community service offering, more effective than those available on the market which require additional devices, such as sensors or problematic wearables. According to internal research conducted by Aerial, only 15% of the people who subscribe to traditional remote care systems use them in the long run.
