Development of a Smart Bed Insert for Detection of Incontinence and Occupation in Elder Care

In order to adequately care for an increasingly aging population, there is a need for novel technical solutions to enhance the standard of living for patients and elderly people. Thus, gathering of health-related data and information on usage to improve said solutions is of uttermost importance. In order to allow a seamless integration for use in hospitals and retirement or private homes, these technical aides have to be the first and foremost easy to use and install. To this end, we present a sensor mat that is able to detect urinary incontinence as well as bed occupancy by patients and can be positioned underneath the bed sheet for easy usage. Thus, it can be applied fast and reliable to use by nursing staff or caretakers. The focus of this paper lies on the external unit, which consists of auxiliary electronics for data recording and processing, as well as either a proprietary radio frequency or a WiFi-Module for data transmission. Wetness is detected by measuring the resistance of embroidered electrodes, while the occupancy status is determined by the capacitance of these electrodes. The electronics can be powered by three standard AA batteries, and assuming a battery capacity of 1500 mAh, the sensor mat can be used all day for up to 2.8 years. Within this work, the electronic monitoring and alert system is presented and characterized by sensory data obtained during a variety of different tests. Due to its low-power consumption and, apart from cleaning, maintenance free operation, the presented sensor mat is an ideal tool to employ in various scenarios.