MELBOURNE: A smartphone application to help elderly people live independently won its 14-year-old designer Australia’s most prestigious school science award.
Dhruv Verma was awarded first place in the BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards’ Engineering category after creating PROTEGO (Proactive Technology for Elderly on the Go), a smartphone app inspired by his great grandfather who lived independently into his nineties until he had a fall.
Verma’s great grandfather, who had broken his hip and was suffering internal bleeding, waited several hours before emergency services arrived to assist.
With PROTEGO, a tiny radio frequency identification tag is worn by the elderly person and connects to wireless antennas placed around the home – which then connects to a smartphone app that carers can use to track the elderly person’s movements in the home…