Alo —
Worry Less, Live More
The Alo patient monitoring ecosystem was grown from the desire to respect our loved ones while still keeping them safe. The design of Alo was heavily centered around peaceful and humble forms to blend harmoniously into any home environment.
Alo implements new technologies in the machine learning and artificial intelligence fields to create a tiny and perceptive camera system that can detect and understand what it sees. By taking advantage of the light weight hardware, Alo is also able to navigate by flying through the air with the help of a small balloon, effectively avoiding any obstacles on the ground. Finally, when paired with the Alo app the system can notify caregivers when help is needed and get immediate attention when it’s necessary.
Industrial Design
Smart Technology
Concept
Problem
The current options for patient monitoring are not catered for the demographic of able bodied elderly people looking for a minimally invasive option to keep caretakers notified while still maintaining their privacy.
Technology
Recent advancements in computer vision and tiny ML (machine learning) has made these technologies available on increasingly smaller devices. This advancement allows for new implementations of AI systems into smaller and more accessible devices, such as a floating monitoring device.
Opportunity
Create a minimally invasive monitoring experience with peace of mind for both caregiver and patient.
Our Audience
Alo is designed with both the elderly and the caretaker in mind; it takes into consideration the wants of the patient, but understands the needs of the caretaker and create an experience that is practical yet respectful.
Elderly Adults
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Wants to stay independent
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Prefers to age at home
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Underlying health conditions that may impede normal day activities
Caregiver
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Needs to insure the safety of the patient
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Needs a reliable way of keeping track of the patient
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Has many distractions that can keep them away from the patient
Common Scenario
Seemingly minor accidents and injuries often go unnoticed and can eventually lead to complications.
1.
Patient is walking around in the living room.
2.
Patient injures knee, but doesn’t think too much about it.
3.
Patient is in pain, but walks around like normal. Caregiver implies that things are okay.
4.
Patient’s knee turns out to be a bigger problem and needs medical attention.
Our Solution
Unlike the traditional way of home monitoring, which is very complex and intrusive, the Alo system is designed to be set up in minutes, and provide constant unobstructed monitoring with only one camera. Through the Alo app, one can customize the frequency of alerts, and even receive instant updates upon request.
1.
Patient is walking around in the living room.
2.
Patient injures knee. Alo indicates the injury.
3.
Caregiver is alerted on the app.
4.
Caregiver is able to provide immediate help and prevent the injury from escalating.
Our Technology: Tiny ML
Deep learning goes even tinier
Tiny ML enables powerful neural networks to run efficiently on increasingly simpler, cheaper, and smaller hardware platforms. This technology opens up the opportunity to implement complex AI systems on a light weight helium balloon for constant activity monitoring.
Small
Integration into a users life is seamless, and is non disruptive to the living environment.
Low Powered
Only a small amount of power is needed to process a lot of complex information.
Cheap
Technology is scalable and accessible to the masses
Local
Does not need to connect to the Internet or cloud to work, which can ensure privacy for the user since it is unable to be hacked
Tiny ML for Elderly Monitoring
Using powerful tiny machine learning technology, Alo is able to understand what it sees and accurately identify actions. Actions then get transcribed and displayed for the caretaker to see in the Alo app without providing video feed. This way of computing will not only pinpoint crucial moments for the caretaker, but also retains full visual privacy for the monitored individual.
Object detection
Ability to distinguish between people and objects insuring that its attention is always directed towards the patient.
Action Detection
Capable of categorizing and logging different physical states of a person (ex. standing / sitting).
Visual wake
Adaptability will start/stop recording if it sees a specific person, object, or action.
Alo App
Using the Alo mobile app, the caretaker will be notified where, what, and the risk level the patient is in through a quick and easy to navigate home screen.
Through the app settings, the caregiver can adjust the types of highly customizable actions that they want to be notified on to ensure the safety and well being of the elderly.
Mobility Elevated
Alo is able to gracefully traverse through a home while actively avoiding ground obstacles by simply floating over them. As it follows the user around the home, Alo is able to grow and learn more about the space and becomes even better at maneuvering around.
Alo limits one camera on board to keep invasiveness to a minimum, and when docked, the system seamlessly blends into the environment around it.
Self Charging
When Alo runs low on power it will self dock into its charging stand. Designed to blend into the existing furniture around the house, Alo can be stationed anywhere in a room without being an anomaly.
The Alo system
The camera located in the electronic housing of Alo monitors and understands information surrounding the patient and the environment around them. These actions are then actively transcribed and recorded on the Alo app to which the caregiver can read through at any time. When Alo identifies an “event” that has notification action linked to it, the caregiver will receive an update on their smart phone with a suggested list of further actions.
