A project at De Montfort University, Leicester and the University of Lincoln is either genius or dotty. I can’t decide. Can you? Mobility scooters to be fitted with tracking technology to prevent users getting lost from the Telegraph.
2 thoughts on “Mobile telecare for mobility scooters (UK)”
Comments are closed.
Tracking of Mobility Scooters
I am not sure how tracking devices fitted to mobility scooters as proposed could prevent people accidently joining a motorway. They may be useful to find a person who is lost. They may be useful to contact a monitoring centre but would they be able to talk a person back to their home, given they are lost and not familiar with their surroundings?
Perhaps the most important consideration is the original assessment of the user for a scooter, this is where a detailed assessment by a trained assessor of the user at their home and surrounding environment is essential, with an accompanied trial to potential areas they would visit. In this way the assessor could ascertain the suitability of the user together with the environment in which they wish to use the scooter.
Mobile Telecare is no doubt useful in extending the support away from the home and this device could help to support the user and give them confidence to be more independent knowing there is a fallback should they have an incident.
However,the first priority must be the initial assessment for the scooter.
I like the tracking, but the extension of telecare?
I’m assuming the scooter tracking is GPS based but connecting the scooter back into the home telecare network is a ‘howzzit’. Also I’m trying to imagine how sensor-based home monitoring can work outside the home…in fact PERS would be an interesting trick.
Where’s the two way radio which should be part of the emergency kit? (Scooters have a nasty tendency to get stuck or out of power.)
The only way the tracker fitted to the scooter could prevent joining a motorway is a cut-out–i.e. the tracking is monitored centrally, an alarm sounds and it’s done manually or is connected to an interactive map. If there is a motorway ahead, it kills the power. However, from what I’ve seen in the UK, the A (secondary) roads have their own hazards! (Disclosure: I live and drive in the NYC metro area.)