‘Smart surface’ data collection could make homes safer

A system to collect and analyse data from “smart surfaces” that will help improve home safety for elderly people is being developed by Deakin University in regional Victoria and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Deakin is working with the academy’s Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology to set up test systems at the university’s Geelong campus.

Rui Wang, a research fellow with the university’s mediated intelligence in design laboratory, said her ageing parents were part of a growing population of older people in China who did not have family support at home.