How do the elderly care?
“9073”。
Wang Haidong, director of the Department of Aging Health of the National Health Commission, said: "About 90% of the elderly in the mainland are home-based; about 7% of the elderly rely on community support for the elderly; 3% of the elderly live in institutions for the elderly. ”
However, for the elderly who account for the highest proportion of home-based elderly, how to monitor the health situation? How to respond to accidental falls in time? How to protect the health of the elderly living alone?
Recently, major hardware manufacturers have developed a new technical solution: millimeter-wave radar.
Millimeter Wave Radar: Comfortable, Multi-Type Data, Privacy Protection
How to monitor the health status of elderly people living alone at home? There are two major technical routes in the market. One type of wearable devices such as smart bracelets and sleeping tapes monitor the physical condition of the elderly. Another type is based on camera visual routes, and children use home improvement cameras to monitor whether the elderly have accidents. However, both types of monitoring routes have certain limitations. The elderly have a certain resistance to wearing wearable devices such as bracelets and sleeping belts at all times, and the falls that are most harmful to the health of the elderly cannot be monitored. Home cameras are poorly protective of the privacy of the elderly and cannot monitor environments with the highest likelihood of falls, such as bathrooms.
More comfortable, better privacy, and the ability to capture multiple types of data such as movement, body posture, heart rate, and breathing at the same time are the three advantages of millimeter-wave radar over previous health monitoring products.
"Better protection of the privacy of the elderly is the advantage of millimeter-wave radar." Liu Baichao, deputy general manager of the smart health care division of Changsha Mozhibi Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., said in an interview with China Electronic News, "Millimeter-wave radar does not recognize other sensitive data such as user facial information while retaining the action information of the elderly, and the elderly will be more assured to use it." ”
Compared with wearable monitoring products, millimeter wave radar can achieve more insensitivity. "As long as a small device is installed in the bathroom, bedroom and other rooms, intelligent monitoring of individual rooms can be realized." Li Gang, general manager of Yunfan Ruida, said in an interview with the China Electronics News reporter, "The volume of a millimeter-wave radar monitoring single product is similar to the common smoke alarm in the home, which can monitor the movement of the human body within 6 to 7 meters, which is enough to meet the health monitoring needs of a room." "There is no need to wear it closely, which makes the millimeter-wave radar can perform non-perceptual monitoring of the movements and behaviors of the elderly, which is more comfortable."
In the past two years, domestic and foreign millimeter wave radar sensor head manufacturers have launched millimeter wave radar products suitable for home monitoring scenarios. Overseas vehicle-grade millimeter wave radar and chip manufacturers Texas Instruments and Infineon have launched millimeter wave radar products for home environments. Texas Instruments launched a 60GHz millimeter wave radar Soc, which can be used in bathrooms, bedrooms, nursing homes and other places to determine whether the elderly have fallen. The BGT60TR13C released by Infineon can realize human movement detection and vital signs monitoring, which can be used in smart homes in the future and can also be used for monitoring the health status of the elderly. Swedish semiconductor company acconeer is also using millimeter-wave radar in healthcare, mobile devices and wearables.
Domestic manufacturers are also exploring the possibility of using millimeter-wave radar for home health monitoring. Changsha Mozhibi Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., which specializes in the research and development of millimeter-wave radar sensors, has launched the ISF-J10 indoor application monitoring millimeter-wave radar, which can obtain information such as the fall status, heart rate, and breathing of people in the radar at close range by emitting 60GHz electromagnetic waves and processing the recovered signal. Millimeter wave radar supplier Yunfan Ruida Technology Co., Ltd. has also launched a millimeter wave radar module, which can be integrated in home appliances to achieve functions such as fall alarm, sleep monitoring, and respiratory heartbeat monitoring.
Product test period: broad prospects, the market to be developed
According to the seventh census data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the mainland population aged 60 and above is 264.02 million, accounting for 18.70% of the total population of the country, of which the population aged 65 and over is 190.64 million, accounting for 13.50%. The Ministry of Health said that the growth of the elderly population has brought huge market expectations for smart pension products.
The optimism about the market prospect is the reason why domestic and foreign millimeter wave radar manufacturers have entered the smart health care market. Li Guohao, Application Marketing Director of Infineon Technologies Greater China, said that according to market research forecasts, the number of installations of home health monitoring products will grow from 20 million units this year to 180 million units in the next decade.
Growth of the elderly population in mainland China (Data source: National Bureau of Statistics)
In the seventh national census, the population of Hunan Province aged 60 and above has reached 13.21 million, accounting for 19.88% of the total population; the population aged 65 and above is 9.84 million, accounting for 14.81% of the total population. Liu Baichao's Mozhibi Intelligent Technology is located in Changsha, and the market in Hunan Province is the most important promotion market in the initial stage of products. Liu Baichao said: "If we can win one thousandth of the market for the elderly population in Hunan Province, it is enough for the profitability of the enterprise." There is still a lot of room for growth from this goal. ”
From the current market application situation, the market application of millimeter wave radar is still dominated by vehicle-level applications, and the application in the fields of home health monitoring and medical monitoring is still in the testing stage. Liu Baichao said that many terminal manufacturers are still exploring the application form of millimeter-wave radar, and what type of household appliances are integrated in what form to bring products to the market, which is still a problem that terminal manufacturers are thinking about.
Changes in the age structure of the mainland population (data source: National Bureau of Statistics)
Some manufacturers have launched household monitoring products equipped with millimeter-wave radar. Qinglei Technology released the "Begaan Intelligent Health Care Life Support System", which can monitor vital signs such as breathing/heart rate in indoor scenes all day and all day, without contact. Millimeter-wave radar is integrated into Google's Nest Thermosat thermostat to simultaneously analyze and detect sleep quality. Yunfan Ruida has launched a variety of household millimeter wave radar equipment, with human body fall alarm, sleep breathing monitoring, sleep quality monitoring, human breathing and heartbeat and other functions.
However, the marketing of such products is still in its infancy, and there is still huge room for expansion.
Liu Baichao said that Mozhibi's intelligent health care millimeter wave products are currently largely oriented to the model of community pension, and the development of the C-end market is still limited.
Expanding to the C-side, the high price is still an obstacle it faces. The reporter learned through the interview that at present, the price of integrated household millimeter wave radar fluctuates in the range of 500 yuan to more than 1,000 yuan. If the product market expands and production and sales increase, the price of a single millimeter-wave radar is expected to drop to less than 100 yuan.
Future development: improve technical maturity and improve industry standards
Vehicle-grade millimeter-wave radar has formed a relatively complete product technology, but as a health monitoring, its technology has yet to continue to mature. Millimeter wave radar requires more sensitivity in health monitoring applications than in vehicle-grade applications. Li Gang said that the application of millimeter-wave radar in fall alarm and sleep monitoring has matured, but it will take a while to monitor heartbeat. For millimeter-wave radar suppliers, it is the most core task at this stage to promote the expansion of the product to the medical care market, improve the sensitivity of careful capture of the human body, and optimize the level of analysis.
The lack of industry standards is another core problem that businesses face today. As the industry is in its infancy, manufacturers are exploring their own technical routes and exploring their own technical standards. The lack of unified industry standards is another problem in the expansion of millimeter-wave radar into the field of medical and nursing monitoring, which requires the integration of opinions within the industry and the construction of industry standards.
Huawei's whole house intelligent AI super sense solution
In order to cope with the aging of society, Peng Xiandong, general manager of GfK's major appliances division, said in an interview: "Public pension facilities are in the process of gradual optimization and upgrading, family pension is an inevitable option at present or even for a period of time, and many pension equipment has become an indispensable product for families. In Peng Xiandong's view, in the future, there are two major trends in the development of home care products, simplification and product public intelligence.
Intelligent application, integrated into the AIoT whole house intelligent management system, may be a key breakthrough in improving the market application of millimeter wave radar in the field of health care monitoring. As a sensor, millimeter-wave radar health monitoring has a natural affinity for IoT technology. The implementation of the health monitoring function of millimeter-wave radar itself requires the help of Internet of Things technology and communication technology to achieve reporting, notification and alarm to the user terminal. The realization of some product functions also requires the purchase of communication services provided by operators. Enterprises, including Huawei, Xiaomi, and the three major operators, are all laying out their own smart home ecosystems. Among them, Huawei launched a whole-house intelligent AI supersensitive sensor, equipped with millimeter-wave radar, to track the position and trajectory of the human body to achieve intelligent regulation of air conditioning and lights in the house. With the power of existing players in the smart home industry, it may be the key to the entry of millimeter-wave radar into the field of health monitoring.