Smart Relax Armchair - a solution for active and safe ageing at home
Authors: De Cristofaro Sarah , Rizzi Luca , Cardone Dario , Berti Lisa , Spina Ubaldo 
Published: June 2024

The fact that people are living longer is a social and economic challenge for developed countries in the 21st century. An ageing society leads to an increase in the number of people living with multiple chronic conditions, facing the loss of independence and autonomy in daily activities and suffering social isolation caused by the pandemic or by the necessity of long-term care at home. The increasing incidence of sedentarism as well as prolonged immobility caused by long-stay settings (care home) is also a growing health concern. Indeed, spending too much time sitting daily could increase the incidence of postural changes and pressure ulcer formation, further reducing the physical, social, and emotional well-being of older adults.These problems are countable as significant contributors among many threats to elderly health and well-being leading to morbidity, disability, and premature death. In this view, Ambient Assisted Living solutions to monitor house routines of elderly patients and offer simple and healthy exercises daily are essential.This paper reports the results of the research activity conducted by the authors in collaboration with a well-known Italian sofa and armchair producer and health experts to develop an innovative solution for promoting active and safe ageing at home using a Smart Relax Armchair. The goal of the study was to introduce new smart functions to a Relax Armchair to help maintain a correct posture as well as to reduce the formation of bedsores by inducing frequent repositioning.To reach the goal, firstly the authors conducted a benchmarking analysis to identify the smart functions dedicated to health and wellbeing purposes already available on the market in the home furniture sector. A user-centred design methodology has been implemented to identify the Smart Relax Armchair functionalities, by involving industry experts, researchers in active ageing, biomedical engineers, and potential users since the early design stage. A dedicated design thinking tool has been used for users’ needs identification and translation into metrics (i.e. technical features). The Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method and tool have been used to rank such metrics and drive the design of the final product to meet users’ needs at best.3D virtual manikins, technical standards, ergonomic manuals, and the know-how of biomedical engineers and experts in Functional Recovery and Rehabilitation have been used to identify postural misbehaviour in daily life and potential intervention areas on a commercial Relax Armchair. Several active and passive solutions have been identified and tested to help maintain the correct posture and reduce the formation of bedsores. A sensorised mat has been used to assess changes in pressure distribution with respect to different layers of cushioning materials and to help select the specific pressure relief mattresses for bedsore prevention to be integrated into the final design.At the same time, an innovative protocol (anti-decubitus function) has been developed and implemented via ARDUINO to automatically induce a repositioning of the Smart Relax Armchair and thus changing the pressure distribution on the body, if the APP detects prolonged sitting.The protocol of the anti-decubitus function has been validated on a preliminary prototype thanks to a sensorised mat which demonstrated the effectiveness on pressure distribution variation, thus allowing the patenting of the idea.In order to promote active ageing at home, a set of simple rehabilitation exercises to be performed with the help of the Smart Relax Armchair has been designed and implemented in the APP specifically developed to control the product via a Smartphone or a vocal assistant.A final prototype including all the selected and developed solutions has been produced and a clinical trial will be conducted in the next months for the final validation of the product.The solutions developed and implemented on the Smart Relax Armchair have the potential to be applied to any model of Armchair or Sofa by the producer, thus changing the conventional paradigm of expensive products for active ageing only available for residential care facilities which cannot be afforded by those willing to age in place.