| Sumario: | Purpose The aim of this paper is to develop a multi-functional health management system to help the elderly maintain good health before illness occurs and to provide a health management environment for the elderly. Method Figures 3 and 4 show the main structures of the proposed system for indoor and outdoor applications, respectively. The instruments used to measure include a light ring-type pulse sensor, a pedometer, a scalar, a complexion inspector, and a Zig-Bee indoor localization system. The measured physiological signals (heartbeat, temperature, steps, and weight) are recorded by a smartphone for several apps such as 'BMI watch', 'walking ten thousand steps daily', and 'exercise 333' (exercise three times weekly, thirty minutes each time with a heartbeat above one hundred thirty beats per minute) to remind/encourage the elderly to keep working toward good health. The 'complexion inspector' can capture changes of complexion to determine the health conditions of the elderly based on traditional Chinese facial diagnosis theory1. The ZigBee localization system with physiological data can display an early warning to remind the elderly to exercise or let the caregiver assist them when the subject has stayed indoors for too long. A GPS system in a smartphone can work jointly with measured physiological signals to send text messages (the physical conditions and GPS coordinates) to first-aid personnel/friends and relatives if an emergency arises (e.g. pulse or temperature lower or higher than a threshold). The face image processing app developed on the smartphone can capture facial images, such as facial contours, face colours, smile lines, etc. Chinese medicine doctors can check the extracted visual features and give suggestions via the Internet. Results & Discussion Systems and graphical user interfaces such as 'exercise 333' that shows the elderly person's progress and status which reminds the user to exercise, ZigBee localization system that indicates the subject is moving, and the complexion detector etc. have been developed. Based on the user's feedback, the proposed system provides awareness of health management and is helpful for enabling the elderly to develop a healthy life style.
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