A project led by the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Institute for Sustainable Futures in collaboration with the NSW Smart Sensing Network and the University of Newcastle’s FASTLab research hub seeks to understand older Australians’ attitudes to using sensors and robots in their home.

Using sensors and robots in the home could be the key to keeping Australia’s rapidly ageing population at home longer and pose as a solution to a recommendation of the 2021 Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety which identified a lack of adequate resources to meet the growing demand for aged care facilities and hospitals.

“Using sensor-driven technology in the home can help support Australia’s rapidly ageing population and alleviate the burden on hospitals and aged care resources,” UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures professor Jason Prior says.

“However, we don’t know what the everyday ageing person thinks about using this technology. That’s why we are conducting this market research, to give us the insight we need.”

For the first time, NSW universities, healthcare providers and local health districts will survey older Australians, carers, families and healthcare professionals about their attitudes to the use of technology that can support their increasing preference to age at home.

The project comes as the Australian population over 65 is rapidly increasing in demand and aged care services are expected to grow. There is also an increasing preference for people to stay in their homes with more than 1.3 million people using aged care services in Australia in 2019-2020.

NSSN MedTech team leader Catherine Oates Smith says governments quickly need a plan to support the country’s rapidly ageing population and sensors can help.

“Sensors can collect data on lifestyle and biometric data such as activity data and blood pressure readings and then trigger preventative and urgent alerts. The information picked up by the sensors can be sent to family, carers and telehealth operators so that action can be taken to support the ageing person in their home, instead of them having to go to the hospital or an aged care facility,” she says.

“In the aged care sector, a vital sign alerting system could significantly reduce the number of falls for ageing people, especially at night, and reduce the burden on carers to do check-ups in person.”

Reasons why people may reject technology could include problems with the design of the technology, ease of use, concerns over the collection of personal information and potential of data breaches and hacks, the researchers say.

The project involves a consortium of ten Australian innovation companies, five NSW universities and three NSW Local Health Districts and has received $168,000 of funding through the SPHERE Seed Funding Grant Scheme and in-kind industry support of $221,990.

It’s hoped the project outcomes will help guide existing initiatives across academia, industry and NSW and federal governments and lead to a real-world trial of technology in ageing people’s homes.