- Health Is Wealth
- Posts
- Auxivia launches its connected smart health glasses that prevent dehydration
Auxivia launches its connected smart health glasses that prevent dehydration
In the connected healthcare market, senior care is one of the most important topics. Among the objects that are intended for the elderly, a connected smart health glass Auxivia that allows to follow the hydration of the residents of retirement homes.
How can IoT change the lives of our elders?
Auxivia is a young French startup that develops connected objects and innovative services dedicated to supporting the elderly and improving their daily lives and that of their caregivers. The company was created in 2015 by Vincent Philippe and Antoine Dupont. The two men met at ESCP Europe School during their last year of study.
The idea of creating Auxivia has already sprung up in their minds in autumn 2014. But, they had to wait until the end of their studies in April 2015 to concretize their project by incubating it within the accelerator of the Ecole Polytechnique. It is a connected glass that can check that the residents of a nursing home are hydrated enough.
Smart glass Auxivia by Antoine Dupont
At a time when the aging of the population is one of the major issues of Western societies, he wanted to improve the living conditions of the elderly through the domotisation of retirement homes.
Auxivia wants to develop innovative services with simple objects. The goal is to make the objects usable by anyone, to simplify the logistics in these establishments.
A software bundles different data such as the quantity of water intake, the personalized daily goal of each user, etc. Traceability is therefore carried out to facilitate monitoring. The glasses are used in the same way as a traditional glass. They are dishwasher safe, fall proof and hygienic. However, the glasses can not go into the microwave. A light booster call for hydration encourages the resident to drink. The glasses have a charging base. A full charge is around 1:30. The glasses have an autonomy of 7 to 10 days. In most cases an ethernet connection is sufficient. A Wifi or 4G connection can also be used.
Auxivia: a connected smart health glass to smooth the hydration
The first object created for this purpose is a drinking glass adapted to the constraints of this ecosystem. This is a normal glass except that it automates the feedback of information about the hydration of its user.
How it works At first, the connected glass of Auxivia learns the habits of its user and records the water intake. It can light up to remind the user to drink or to make him drink more water.
When he detects a change of habits or of hygienic risks, he points out these anomalies to the carers or the nursing staff (in Ehpad or in the hospital for example), thus facilitating the care of the user.
The data recorded by this smart glass is also accessible at any time thanks to a customizable tracking tool.
This innovation allows caring for older people while assisting carers or health staff in their task.
There may be up to one hundred Auxivia glasses in an establishment. They are equipped with chips to allow them to recognize residents. Thus, the object always matches the nearest terminal.
To put it simply: each room will be equipped with a terminal to which the chip present in each glass will be able to connect. Thus, glasses are not related to residents, but to their room. This avoids obvious logistics concerns, after each wash for example.
In addition to helping to manage residents’ hydration information, the glass has a light signal to remind seniors to hydrate. This can be very useful because they unfortunately tend to forget it.
Regarding its design: it is thinner at the bottom and more open at the top to facilitate handling for people with little strength or range of motion. It also goes to the dishwasher.
Hydration: a key issue in retirement homes
Retirement homes need transparency and traceability in the same way as hotels, for example. The demands of retirement homes are drastic.
Nowadays, the monitoring of the hydration of the residents is manual or oral. These means are, of course, unreliable and new tools are needed. The idea is to automate the process.
Auxivia is currently in the process of industrialization, but it already equips retirement homes under test. The first series are currently produced and marketing.