Abstract
Demographically, the proportion of elderly people in the population is increasing worldwide. The proportion of elderly people (aged over 60) has been rising and in 2015 the proportion was reported to be 12.3% and is expected to reach 16.5% of the world population in the year 2030. Additionally, elderly people are more vulnerable to many diseases and heart failure persists as the most common cause of mortality. However, while acknowledging this threat, elderly people have a longer life expectancy and live more independently in the environment of their choice. To meet this challenge, smart devices are considered a solution to monitor heart rates of elderly people and detect any abnormal activity that may require action to be taken. In order to assess how this solution could be implemented, the aim of this paper was to compare the accuracy of heart rate readings by conducting experiments on five different models of smart devices: (A) Vívosmart, (B) Philips, (C) Pulsimeter, (D) Fitbit-Surge, and (E) Chest Strap. A comparison of the results demonstrated that the Smart watch devices detect heart rates more accurately when compared to Chest Straps and the Pulsoximeter, with a variation of
±
10%. The results of this paper suggest that replacing current devices (such as chest strap and finger device) with Smart watches as a primary solution for heart rate monitoring to support healthcare and for Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) would significantly reduce cost incurred by physically visiting elderly individuals on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis.