A technology developed with support from the Scottish Government has been deployed to support residents of a retirement housing complex in Biggar, South Lanarkshire.
Bield Housing and Care has launched the scheme that uses sensors developed by Glasgow based company Archangel, which has received support from Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre (DHCI).
The ‘Evaluating care delivery in rural settings’ project will last for six months and involves the use of a range of unobtrusive sensors inside residents’ homes and around the development, monitoring factors such as temperature, humidity and motion.
The data is relayed to Archangel’s ambient assisted living (AAL) technology platform and automatically monitored for a quick response to any issues that might affect living conditions.
The sensors are connected to a connectivity network provided by Angelnet, a certified partner of Archangel, which includes broadband, mobile and a low power long range wide area network.
Exploring IoT expansion
Gavin Wright, head of property management at Bield Housing, said: “This project enables us to explore IoT expansion as part of our digital strategy and aligns closely with the Smart Social Housing initiative which aims to tackle a major challenge in housing, health and social care: the fragmentation of data across disconnected systems.”
Professor Soumen Sengupta, director of health and social care for South Lanarkshire, said: “A key objective of South Lanarkshire’s Local Housing Strategy is that people with particular needs are better supported to live independently within the community in a suitable, sustainable home.
“The integrated deployment of digital technologies will have an increasingly important role in this and I am looking forward to the sharing of the lessons learnt from this project across our local authority area, the wider Glasgow City Region and the country as a whole.”
