The SmartSound project was founded for preparing the commercialization of sound recognition technologies for surveillance applications. Healthcare, and especially the healthcare of elderly people was found to be the most promising area for audio based safety solutions.
Ageing population and declining resources pose a significant challenge for the healthcare systems and societies. While the total population in the EU is estimated to slightly increase from 510 million in 2016 to 520 million in 2070, the working-age population will decrease significantly from 330 million to 290 million. The situation is especially difficult in Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Sweden and Finland. Considering elderly care, the use of new technologies for healthcare interventions, communication and monitoring has been seen as the best way for arranging cost effective care and increasing the quality of life of the customers and their families. The utilization of audio monitoring in healthcare and safety solutions has a large untapped potential, as recent developments in machine learning have improved the quality of the recognition results significantly.
Together with Finnish healthcare organizations, we made a succesful proof-of-concept study that aimed to demonstrate the technological feasibility of sound recognition technology in patient safety monitoring in nursing homes. We collected audio data from two nursing homes, refitted the recognition technology to better suit the audio environment in question, and examined the composition of customer value with user studies and business environment analysis.
As a next step, we are packaking the core intellectual property for attracting investors and initiating business activities.
