Bluetooth-based technology could help older adults stay independent

A new Bluetooth-based positioning system could offer healthcare systems a low-energy, low-cost method of tracking older adults’ mobility, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS Digital Health by Qiyin Fang of McMaster University, Canada, and colleagues.

Global Positioning System (GPS) is the dominant positioning technology today, but its use indoors is limited due to the difficulty in communicating with GPS satellites. However, the knowledge of a person’s position is critical for many real-time healthcare applications, including monitoring older adults in both their homes and long-term care facilities.

In the new study, researchers designed, developed and validated a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)- based Indoor Positioning System (IPS) that measures and tracks specific users’ locations continuously throughout the day.  IPS relies on small, wireless beacons plugged into wall outlets and wearable Bluetooth tags. Importantly, it does not require professional setup or detailed floorplans and costs about $200 for a typical setup involving five beacons.

To test the BLE-based IPS, scientists placed the system in two different suburban homes. The system was able to correctly identify a person’s location 96% of the time when it combined Bluetooth signals with motion sensors. The research team suggested that the technology could be used to monitor people’s locations as well as for tracking of medical equipment in dynamic environments such as hospitals.

“The potential for real-time, context-aware healthcare monitoring can significantly improve patient safety and caregiver efficiency, driving further research in this area,” the authors say.

The authors add: “The McMaster team developed an indoor positioning system specifically for tracking older adults' mobility in their own homes.  The technology was designed for low-cost implementation and operation that is critical for use in existing homes."  

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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Digital Health: https://plos.io/4cru1Tl

Citation: Wang H, Ganesh G, Zon M, Ghosh O, Siu H, Fang Q (2025) A BLE based turnkey indoor positioning system for mobility assessment in aging-in-place settings. PLOS Digit Health 4(4): e0000774. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000774

Author countries: Canada

Funding: This work was supported in part by funding from AGE-WELL NCE (Networks of Centres of Excellence) and McMaster Institute of Research in Aging (MIRA) (AW-MIRA-SIPA-Apr19-055 to QF and HS; AW-MIRA-HQP2022-02 to HW); National Research Council (NRC) of Canada (AiP426-1 to QF), Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada (RGPIN-2019-07127 to QF), and Canadian Foundation of Innovation (CFI)/Ontario Research Fund-Research Infrastructure (ORF-RI) (to QF). HW and GG were supported by the NSERC sMAP CREATE program (to QF). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.