thank you for your interest in iStay@Home!
Here you will find a comprehensive explanation of the system components and how it works.
Just keep scrolling down to find more.
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What exactly is istay@home?
First…the sensors
A typical iStay@Home system has several motion sensors, magnetic door/window sensors a smoke alarm, humidity sensor, smartplug and Gateway device.
These devices are installed in home of the recipient, your older loved one. All the sensors are battery powered, so there is no messy electrical worked needed. The gateway just needs a standard electrical outlet and because it’s sim enabled no internet connection is needed.
Don’t worry, we handle the installation, it’s included in the price. It should take a maximum of an hour, when we depart the system will be fully functional.
It’s about activity…
In a typical installation, we position motion sensors in the Bedroom, Living room and Bathroom. In this home almost all rooms open to the Lobby, so we placed a motion sensor there as well.
Our Mobile App.
Sensors are not much use unless the data is made useful. That where our mobile App. comes in, it presents the sensor activity from the home in an easy to read way.
The top three tiles of the App. show the last three rooms where activity was detected. If you follow the faint footsteps you move across from right to left. With the top left tile showing the most recent activity detected.
Under the top row of tiles is the ribbon display. It’s a constantly unfurling`time line’ showing the last 24 hours of activity in the home. Activity is displayed as bars, the length of which corresponds to the duration of time on the lower scale.
If you would like to begin the process of ordering the iStay@Home system, you can go direct to our orders page by pressing the above button.
There is a 5 minute application form to fill in and we won’t be asking you to pay anything at this stage. Once your form is processed we will contact you with a proposed system together with a quote to supply and install.
Magnet sensors
We install magnet sensors on any external doors, plus the fridge and if required on a medicine cabinet. The magnet sensor allows us to record whenever the door is used, the Fridge accessed and the medicine cabinet opened.All of which help to build a picture of the overall activity in the homer.
Magnet Activity
Our mobile App shows magnet sensor activity for the Tile marked Fridge on the right hand side of the top row. The App. tells us it is 7 hours and 5 minutes since the fridge was opened. Family members can determine if that seems normal or unusual. Similarly the Medicine Cabinet on the left side of row 2 tells us it’s been 6 hours and 60 minutes since it was accessed. The occupant leaves the home, the magnet sensor will record the time and the Entryway Tile will take to left side of row 1 as it will have been the last detected event.
3 final sensors
The humidity sensor is installed in the bathroom so we can determine shower events, the smoke alarm is placed in the kitchen and the smartplug is used with the electric jug. Additional smartplugs can be installed on electrical devices to allow scheduling of operation. The smoke alarm, unlike the standard version installed in most homes, will alert you to any smoke events in the home.
Activity vs Insights
Some sensors can provide activity data and also allow us to gain insight into our older loved ones lifestyle, in particular we can get clues as to whether they are managing or that they may require help at home.
The App. in this picture shows the Bedroom in the left position on the top row, which means it’s the most recent activity detected. A flag tells us the occupant is awake and the tile itself gives us some rough data about how restful their sleep was.
Directly underneath, the Shower tile gives us insight into how long the occupant spent in the shower compared to a running average. By recording some of these values family members can determine whether showers are taking longer than they were, which may indicate that the occupant requires some help to shower.
Alert/Notification
One tile in the App. is called Alerts. By pressing this a list of recent alerts will appear. These may simply be high or low temperature events, alerts as to the external doors being used, or an unexpected lack of activity in certain rooms at particular times. Alerts tend to build up so it’s best to acknowledge them and clear the list regularly.
SMS Alarms
More important events are sent to you as SMS messages. These can be extremely long periods of unexpected inactivity, the occupant spending much longer than normal in the Bathroom, lack of Fridge access etc.
Family are the best judge of what is serious, the SMS alarms will draw your attention to events that don’t fit the routine and allow you to decide if an event looks unusual enough to make a quick call confirming all is ok.