Smart mattress for elderly care wins national fellowship for IIIT-H professor
HYDERABAD: A research proposal by IIIT-Hyderabad professor Aftab Hussain to develop a contactless sleep monitoring system for the elderly has won the Young Faculty Research Fellowship (YFRF), a highly selective national programme under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
The project focuses on building a low-cost smart mattress capable of detecting falls, tracking sleep patterns, and monitoring patient well-being without using cameras or wearable devices.
Falls during sleep remain a critical concern
Ageing significantly increases the risk of falls, which often lead to serious injury or death, according to the World Health Organization. Monitoring elderly patients during sleep is crucial, especially in homes and hospitals where incidents may go unnoticed.
“In many cases, help arrives too late not because care is unavailable, but because no one knows an incident has occurred,” Hussain said.
His solution embeds sensor technology into a mattress topper, allowing continuous monitoring without requiring behavioural changes from users.
AI-enabled mattress to predict and detect risks
The system uses flexible pressure sensors to track body position, movement, and weight distribution. It can detect falls and identify early warning signs.
“For instance, if there is more pressure at the edge of the mattress, that means they are about to fall,” Hussain said.
Artificial intelligence models under development will analyse real-world data to distinguish normal sleep movements from risky patterns.
Beyond fall detection, the mattress will monitor sleep quality, bed entry and exit times, frequency of movement, and prolonged immobility — a key risk factor for bed sores.
Fellowship supports scalable, low-cost innovation
The YFRF is part of the Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme for Electronics and IT, implemented by the Digital India Corporation. The second phase of the scheme (2021–2030) aims to support research in Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) and IT-enabled services.
The programme is highly selective, targeting only 50 researchers over a decade. So far, 24 fellowships have been awarded.
Hussain said affordability is central to the project. “We are aiming for large-scale deployment across care facilities while keeping costs low,” he said.
The idea emerged from collaboration with a nearby elderly care centre, which highlighted the need for such a solution. Early prototypes have been developed, with testing and refinements ongoing.
With fellowship support, the team plans to improve hardware design, enhance comfort, and finalise AI algorithms.
In a healthcare environment where monitoring solutions often raise privacy concerns, the proposed system offers a passive, non-intrusive alternative designed to operate quietly in the background.
