The SHAPES smart mirror provides a unique platform in which different applications can be deployed and run offering valuable services to promote healthy and active ageing. Although the major goals of the SHAPES smart mirror platform presented here are to support independent living and to promote at-home physical activity, these objectives will be pursued by addressing three of the major risk factors determining older adults’ health and well-being as known: social isolation, falls and physical inactivity.

The Call Service

The SHAPES smart mirror platform provides a perfect platform for video-conference purposes since it can handle both video and audio. Efforts have been therefore addressed to provide a call service that put the focus on ensuring the acceptance and satisfaction of the older adult population. Following a co-designed approach, different participants and experts from the SHAPES project were involved thorough the different iterations of the design implementation and testing phases. This has ensured the usability, user acceptance and satisfaction of the resulting technology. The result is a video-call service built upon the Telegram network9.

To simplify the call process, a system has been developed based on an RFID wristband which stores both personal information and contacts. The login or call process is initiated by approaching the wristband to the reader.

The Fall Detector

One of the major risks to be addressed, with the expected ageing of the population, is that of falls. Falls are one of the main causes of major injuries, psychological problems as side effects and even death in the most severe cases. To avoid or mitigate all these negative consequences, it is necessary to attend to the injured person as early as possible. The most vulnerable people are those who live alone and have no one to care for them. Technological solutions have already been created, such as push buttons that allow the user to notify a fall. These types of solutions, although useful, may not be fully effective in cases in which the victim is disorientated or may even lose consciousness. To meet this need, the smart mirror solution proposed here, provides an automatic fall detector system that, integrated with the call service, notifies the emergency contact when a possible fall is detected.

The Physical Activity Monitor

The solution proposed here, named Phyx.io is a platform which automatically manages and monitors many health- related parameters affecting older adults. This is carried out through the commercial Mi Band 4 smart band, providing information about the most relevant health parameters. The Phyx.io platform collect and process the following information:

•Activities

•Sleep quality

A service has been developed to establish a point-to-point connection between the Mi Band 4 smart band and the smart mirror.

Phyx.io does not only monitor physical activity parameters, but it also intervenes by making recommendations and by supervising the performance of physical-exercise routines intended to recover or maintain the physical shape.

Phyx.io supervises the performance of physical-exercise routines prescribed by a therapist. The purpose of such a session can either be the recovery from an injury or just to stay physically active. The recovery routines are categorised in orofacial rehabilitation exercises and the rest-of-the-body exercises. For the latest, a kiosk version as the one depicted in the image above has been devised. Equipped with a depth camera, Phyx.io supervises and corrects the performance of the different exercises comprising a routine.

For the orofacial rehabilitation exercises, we have used the technology developed by VICOM.

The Voice Assistant

The conversational interface provided by voice-based digital assistants is more intuitive and easier to use than hand-keypad or touch-based input interfaces. A voice assistant, embedded in the SHAPES smart mirror, could therefore provide a natural-language-based interaction.

Calendar with reminders

The SHAPES smart mirror platform provides support for reminders that complement the reminders also provided through the Phyx.io service, sent to the Mi Band 4 smart band.

This service displays events from two different calendars, one at the organisation level and one at the personal level. The first category covers events that affect all users in the context of a multi-user smart mirror (i.e.: smart mirrors in a nursing home context).

Arco research group (UCLM) and El Salvador nursing home are working together to improve the development of the different systems.