A personalised and adaptive intelligent system to adjust circadian lighting for elderly housing

With the rapid population ageing in Europe and in Denmark, there is an increasing interest in technologies and designs that can support the elderly citizens in sustaining well-being and health along with preventing functional decline [1]. To date, the designs of lighting systems in elderly housing are simple and primarily made to support only visual acuity without taking into account other parameters [2]. But elderly people have higher demands on quality of light as their body has to cope with immobility, pathologies and age-related functional decline [3]. In this context, this paper investigates the development of a personalised and adaptive intelligent system [4] to adjust the lighting design in order to improve well-being and comfort levels, as well as to meet the needs of elderly people at home. To this goal, circadian adjusted LED-based (CaLED) lighting is used, which can reflect the rhythm of out-door daylight. CaLED lighting seems that may positively influence age-related needs, mood, cognition, alertness, sleep and improve well-being in general [5][6]. To build this intelligent system 3 different types of data are considered and cross-checked: a) medical (biofactors), b) sensor-based (activity detection, actigraphy, etc.) and c) anthropological (mood and behaviour). This way, the effect of circadian lighting on well-being, can be also documented, before this new technology can be recommended for implementation in elderly housing. A test installation is planned at “Sundhedshuset” in Albertslund, Denmark: 15 flats with frail elderly and 9 flats with people with dementia are used. [1] Lynch, J., & Draper, H. (2014). Ageing well with technology. University of Birmingham [2] Schlangen L, Lang D, Novotny P, Plischke H, Smolders K, Beersma D, et al. (2014). Lightning for well-being in education, work places, nursing homes, domestic applications, and smart cities. Accelerate SSL - Innovation for Europe. SSL-Erate. Available from: http://lightingforpeople.eu/2016/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/SSLerate-3.2-3.4-v4.pdf. [3] Mobily PR, Skemp Kelley LS. (1991). Iatrogenesis in the elderly. Factors of immobility. J Gerontol Nurs. Sep;17(9):5–11. [4] Gate 21, Abertslund Kommune, Amager-Hvidovre Hospital, Zumtobel, AAU Copenhagen. (2015) LighTel project. Available from http://www.gate21.dk/project/lightel/ [5] Turner PL, Van Someren EJW, Mainster MA. (2010). The role of environmental light in sleep and health: effects of ocular aging and cataract surgery. Sleep Med Rev. Aug;14(4):269–80. [6] Kuijsters, A., Redi, J., de Ruyter, B., & Heynderickx, I. (2015). Lighting to make you feel better: Improving the mood of elderly people with affective ambiences. PloS one, 10(7), e0132732.