Detecting Activities of Daily Living and Routine Behaviours in Dementia Patients Living Alone Using Smart Meter Load Disaggregation

The emergence of an ageing population is a significant public health concern. This has led to an increase in the number of people living with progressive neurodegenerative disorders. The strain this places on services means providing 24-hour monitoring is not sustainable. No solution exists to non-intrusively monitor the wellbeing of patients with dementia, resulting in delayed intervention. Using machine learning and signal processing, domestic energy supplies can be disaggregated to detect appliance usage. This enables Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) to be assessed. The aim is to facilitate early intervention and enable patients to stay in their homes for longer. A Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Decision Forest classifier are modelled using data from three test homes. The trained models are then used to monitor two patients with dementia during a six-month clinical trial undertaken in partnership with Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust. In the case of load disaggregation, the SVM achieved (AUC = 0.86074, Sen = 0.756 and Spec = 0.92838). While the Decision Forest achieved (AUC = 0.9429, Sen = 0.9634 and Spec = 0.9634). ADLs are also analysed to identify the behavioural patterns of the occupant while detecting alterations in routine. The approach is sensitive in identifying behavioural routines and detecting anomalies in patient behaviour.