Bluetooth Low Energy Based Indoor Location System For Use In Houses and Small Buildings - A Sub-system in a Medical Application

Abstract

The general population is ageing, and not enough people are choosing careers in healthcare to satisfy the increasing demand. Technological advances could be a good way to meet this challenge, by creating new tools and increasing efficiency. This could potentially free up resources in hospitals and nursing homes, which could be directed at other critical tasks. One suggestion is to use technology to allow elderly to stay longer in their own homes, rather than having them move to nursing homes. This could have a positive effect on both the health care system, and the elderly by giving them an increased feeling of independence.

In this thesis, a prototype of a Bluetooth Low Energy based indoor location system was developed and tested. This location system was thought to be a sub-system of a larger health house system meant to help elderly people to stay longer in their own homes, and was based on the work done in a prestudy. A discussion based on the system from the pre-study was conducted, the system was altered based on this discussion and one instance of the location system was implemented.

A testing plan was made and the system tested. The initial setup did not perform as well as expected. Two new setups were devised and tested to try and improve the results. Both of the new setups showed improvement compared to the initial setup, and one of the significantly so.