SmartBath: A new bathing concept for disabled people

Nowadays, the development of equipment for the elderly care is of great importance due to the increased number of elderlies. The requirements and failures of the existing elderly-care devices were studied in order to identify the most important needs of the bathing activity and then a new concept is proposed ‘SmartBath’. The SmartBath is a new assistive technology to improve autonomy, quality, safety, comfort and hygiene of bathing for elderly or bedridden. The bathing is a daily activity that requires physical effort, dedication and time to perform from the caregiver. This new concept integrates an automatic control of the bathing temperature, water flow-rate and light intensity. This concept can be operated directly or remotely into the system using mobile devices.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.