Abstract For elderly persons, declining physical conditions (frailty) tend to lead directly to conditions requiring nursing care. As a result, it is necessary to detect the signs of such physical declines early and take appropriate supporting actions. However, since it is often difficult for elderly persons to notice these minor daily changes, the use of sensors is rapidly becoming essential. To that end, ambient sensors inserted into the homes of elderly persons offer one of the most promising ways of performing unobtrusive health monitoring. In the present study, as an ambient health monitoring system, the authors propose a handrail-based biaxial sensor device for stairways that can measure the biaxial force exerted on the handrail and thus facilitate understanding the ascension and descension characteristics of private home residents. The changes to these characteristics can then provide crucial information related to the residents’ physical conditions. Specifically, this paper describes a method for detecting signs of physical changes by measuring the speed and frequency of stairway usage. To verify the validity of the system, the authors installed the sensor system in the actual home of an elderly person and conducted 122 days of monitoring. This system, as well as the long-term monitoring results and system verification, are discussed below.
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