Experiencing NFC-based touch for home healthcare

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) aims to enhance quality of life of elder and impaired people. Thanks to the advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and medical technologies, it is now possible to support new home healthcare services to improve their quality of life. In particular, Near Field Communication Technology (NFC) seems to play an important role in elderly homecare. In this paper, a health monitoring system is shown where users can identify themselves by simple touch with an NFC-enabled device and different health information can be wirelessly collected and associated with the identified user. Furthermore, this system enables caregivers or physicians to monitor these health readings and patient actions at home. This system was tested with 17 users that led us to a better understanding of usability and effectiveness of this health system and user needs, and showed their preferences for a certain NFC-enabled device to be used in user identification.