Improving the quality of life of dependent and disabled people through home automation and tele-assistance

Lack of mobility in certain groups of dependents forces them to spend a lot of time at home. In many cases, this limitation makes these people to stay most of the time in a specific room in their houses such as the bedroom or living room, where the only means of entertainment and information gathering is the TV set. Most of present-day households have a personal computer, but the digital divide and lack of adaptation produces certain rejection in this population group. This paper discusses a proposal that leverages the familiar TV set to be used as the user interface for a complete tele-assistance system and control centre of home automation devices. For this, the system makes use of a Home Theatre Personal Computer (HTPC) connected to the TV and offers the features like the monitoring and remote monitoring of a wide range of vital signs, intelligent adaptation of services and interfaces according to the level and type of disability, and centralized control of home automation devices installed at home.