ACTIVITIES :: eTen :: Projects :: Projects of the Month :: MOBILALARM

March 2005 Project of the Month: MOBILALARM

Validating European Mobile Alarm Services for Inclusion and Independent Living

A location-independent mobile alarm service

Issues being addressed

The European MobilAlarm project is testing an innovative alarm service for older, chronically ill and disabled people and for all those concerned about their safety while outside. The service will enable them to initiate an alarm call whenever and wherever they need to do so.

The MobilAlarm device has been specifically designed: it is slightly smaller than a common mobile phone and its weight is 100g. The device is easy to handle as it has only five buttons (including two lateral alarm buttons) and has a battery life of up to four days.

On pressing the alarm buttons of the device, a voice connection to the service centre is activated. The device calculates location data by using the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites and transmits the position to the service centre by Attendo's Care Phone Protocol. This protocol is a unique selling point compared to other mobile alarm devices, as they transmit location data only via unreliable Short Message Service (SMS).

Within the service centre, the user's position is indicated on an electronic map on the operator's screen. The position can be used to direct emergency personnel even if the person in need is not able to describe his or her position. Emergency services can be alerted even across European Union Member State boundaries.

The project includes the following six consortium partners:

	empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologie-forschung mbH (Bonn, Germany), project co-ordinator,
	Attendo Systems GmbH (Ismaning, Germany), preparing the market roll-out of the MobilAlarm device and service,
	Telehealth S.L. (Valencia, Spain), focusing on ICT solutions for social services,
	Fundación Andaluza de Servicios Sociales (FASS, Seville, Spain), a public social service provider including tele-assistance.
	Attendo Response Ltd. (Rotherham, UK), providing response services,
	Recontrol (Karlsruhe, Germany), a private response centre operator,

Through these partners, organisations representing the whole value chain of mobile alarm services are involved – from device manufacturers to patient associations.

Objectives

he overriding objective of MobilAlarm is to test and evaluate the technical, organisational and economic characteristics of this innovative trans-European tele-assistance service and to prepare its roll-out in Member States.

The mobile service promises many benefits to the target groups of old, disabled and chronically ill people: greater independence and more freedom of movement, faster service delivery in urgent cases, thus leading to greater self confidence, feeling of security and improved quality of life. For example, the service may be very helpful for people suffering from the Parkinson disease who may experience sudden unexpected emergencies: loss of control of limbs, dizziness, pain, panic and falls which may lead to broken limbs. The MobilAlarm service may also give them a feeling of confidence in leaving their house and security while they are outside.

The MobilAlarm service also offers benefits to other stakeholders of the care system: care suppliers may reduce their costs because the need to personally accompany clients is diminished and frees scarce personnel for more serious situations. Private and public insurances' expenditures may decline when a call from the MobilAlarm device allows medical service to be delivered at a time when there is no or low damage to the client's health.

Achievements

In autumn 2004, internal technical tests of the device and service were conducted by service centre personnel at FASS, Attendo Monitoring, Attendo Systems Germany and Recontrol. The most important findings include a well-functioning emergency call which worked at all test locations, even in an underground garage, excellent speaking and hearing quality even if the device is a meter away from the holder, and correct indication of the user's location on the electronic map in the service centre. Further tests with more than 100 real customers will be conducted in the core stage of the project in 2005, leading to further adjustments of the device and service.
GPS normally offers an excellent locating accuracy of around 25 meters. However, a technical challenge is that the locating function cannot work when the device is shielded from a sufficient number of GPS satellites. This may be the case, for example, inside buildings, in urban “building canyons” and in dense forests. This problem of conventional GPS will be eased by a new technology named Assisted GPS (A-GPS). Using the mobile phone network, the device holders can be located even within buildings and other shielded locations with a precision of 5 meters. The next generation of the MobilAlarm device will be equipped with this technology.

Reference Data

http://www.mobilalarm-eu.org
Contract Type: Market Validation
Start Date: 01/03/2004
End Date: 31/08/2005