NRC_Well Archives - SAM3 AGE-WELL National Innovation Hub

Smart homes helping older adults live safely and independently

Raymond Wallace — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 01:23:05 +0000

Smart homes helping older adults live safely and independently

March 28, 2026

Time to read: 1 minutes

One morning, an older man doesn’t go to the kitchen for breakfast as he usually does. Instead, he’s still sitting on the edge of his bed, feeling light‑headed. His smart home’s sensors notice the change in his routine and heart rate and send an alert to his caregiver, who checks in right away. He’s reassured that if it had been something serious, help could have been on the way in minutes.

This scene could soon be a reality for many older adults. Smart home technology is evolving to help people age safely and independently in the comfort of their own homes.

And that’s precisely the goal of a collaborative project involving the NRC’s ��(��), �Ӱ�ԭ�� University, and Canadian industry leaders that aims to integrate health monitoring into age-friendly homes.
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NRC_Well Archives - SAM3 AGE-WELL National Innovation Hub

Smart homes helping older adults live safely and independently

B. Laska, P. Xi, J. Valdés, B. Wallace, J. Green, R. Goubran, F. Knoefel, “Coughprint: Distilled Cough Representations from Speech Foundation Model Embeddings”, in IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2025

B. Laska, B. Wallace, R. Goubran, F. Knoefel, “Environment-Compensated Gas Sensor Time-Series Analysis for Tracking Food Spoilage” at IEEE Medical Measurement and Applications Symposium (MeMeA 2025), 2025

Elhajjar, Diane “A Confidence Framework for Heart Rate Estimation in Video Magnification.” MASc diss., �Ӱ�ԭ�� University, 2023.

J. Valdes, Z. Cook, J. Wang, B. Wallace, B. Laska, J. Green, R. Goubran, P. Xi, “Human Activity Understanding through Explainable Audio-Visual Features”, IEEE Sensors Letters, 2024

Brady Laska, Pengcheng Xi, Julio Valdes, Bruce Wallace, Rafik Goubran, Zero-shot Multi-task Cough Sound Analysis with Speech Foundation Model Embeddings, IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurements (MeMeA) 2024, 2024

Saiful Huq, “Differentiation of Dry and Wet Cough Sounds using A Deep Learning Model and Data Augmentation”, M.A.Sc. Thesis �Ӱ�ԭ�� University, 2023.

Mahya Shahmohammadimehrjardi, Bruce Wallace, Adrian D. C. Chan, Rafik Goubran , Pengcheng Xi, Julio J. Valdes , “Multi-Level Method for Sound Source Location Measurement” 2024 IEEE International Instrumentation Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC), 2024

Brady Laska, Julio J. Valdés, Pengcheng Xi, Rafik Goubran, Bruce Wallace, Madison Cohen-McFarlane, Frank Knoefel, “Cough Sound Analysis using Vocal Tract Models” 2024 IEEE International Instrumentation Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC), 2024

D. Elhajjar, B. Wallace, A. Law, R. Goubran, F. Knoefel, “Machine Learning Assessment of Heart Rate Confidence from Video Magnification “, 23rd IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Bioengineering (BIBE), 2023