Towards Privacy-Preserved Aging in Place: A Systematic Review

Owing to progressive population aging, elderly people (aged 65 and above) face challenges in carrying out activities of daily living, while placement of the elderly in a care facility is expensive and mentally taxing for them. Thus, there is a need to develop their own homes into smart homes using new technologies. However, this raises concerns of privacy and data security for users since it can be handled remotely. Hence, with advancing technologies it is important to overcome this challenge using privacy-preserving and non-intrusive models. For this review, 235 articles were scanned from databases, out of which 31 articles pertaining to in-home technologies that assist the elderly in living independently were shortlisted for inclusion. They described the adoption of various methodologies like different sensor-based mechanisms, wearables, camera-based techniques, robots, and machine learning strategies to provide a safe and comfortable environment to the elderly. Recent innovations have rendered these technologies more unobtrusive and privacy-preserving with increasing use of environmental sensors and less use of cameras and other devices that may compromise the privacy of individuals. There is a need to develop a comprehensive system for smart homes which ensures patient safety, privacy, and data security; in addition, robots should be integrated with the existing sensor-based platforms to assist in carrying out daily activities and therapies as required.