Public agencies in smart cities can leverage technologies such as AI and IoT to provide welfare and convenience to their elderly citizens.

Involving pervasive computing in healthcare and other sectors can help them in these endeavors.

Governments in smart cities use urban computing to provide welfare services to their citizens. The all-encompassing presence of urban computing—which involves machine learning, data mining and statistical modeling—promises to be invaluable for aiding the most vulnerable citizens—the disabled and the elderly. Pervasive computing, also known as ubiquitous computing, is a personalized extension of urban computing which involves embedding computational ability into everyday objects—smart dog collar, smart speakers, smart home appliances—via microprocessors and sensors. Essentially, every smart object in a pervasive computing network can act as a data collection point to assist the elderly. Using pervasive computing in healthcare and daily task management can be particularly helpful to make their daily lives significantly easier.

1. Helping the Elderly People Living Alone

The greatest requirement of pervasive computing in healthcare and other sectors is for those elderly people who live on their own without anybody to look after them. According to certain studies, 27% of elderly citizens in the US aged 60 or older were living by themselves in 2020. Generally, older people tend to lose their cognitive abilities with age. So, smart homes can help them complete Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) such as eating, dressing, bathing, and going to the toilet to preserve their health and sanitation. Pervasive and interconnected computing can carry out such tasks with assistance from domestic robots, smart toilets, smart assistants, and smart schedule management tools to carry out commands. What's more, pervasive computing tools also keep track of grocery supplies and toiletries in the smart home. If any of those essentials were in short supply, the pervasive computing network would direct a designated IoT tool to digitally place an order to have them delivered from nearby grocery or retail stores.

2. Providing Active Medical Assistance

Without violating their privacy, pervasive computing tools can be configured to continuously monitor the behavioral and health patterns of elderly people in care homes or personal smart homes. As you know, elderly people require more medical assistance than others. More assistance translates to greater amounts of data collection. So, tools such as wearable health trackers, pervasive sensors along apartment hallways and rooms, vital sign indicators continuously collect data for assessing the existing health condition of the elderly in smart cities. Essentially, pervasive computing in smart cities brings the clinic to elderly inhabitants instead of them having to venture outdoors looking for one in case a medical emergency arises. It also monitors the medicine supplies left before placing orders if they’re about to run out.

The involvement of pervasive computing in healthcare and other sectors enables smart city bodies to aid their elderly effectively. From the point of view of the elderly citizens, technology can act as a helping hand to help them get by without hassles.