Firm blends remote monitoring with automatic face blurring to achieve both privacy and wellbeing outcomes

Kepler Vision Technologies, which specialises in elderly care facility monitoring software, has announced an upgrade to its Kepler Night Nurse (KNN) solution to give users and care staff additional peace of mind and security by automatically blurring the faces of anyone detected by its smart sensor system.

This upgrade will provide an additional level of guaranteed privacy for both patients and care staff.

KNN’s video monitoring system is able to detect when elderly patients fall, when they are in physical distress, and when dementia patients wander into areas that they are not supposed to, automatically alerting staff when these patients need assistance.

Replacing previous sensor systems like bed mats, motion sensors, and wearables, the software allows staff to immediately respond to patients and eliminates 99 percent of false alarms, according to the assistive technology firm.

Unlike traditional camera systems, which require staff attention to monitor, with KNN, live video feeds are analysed by the software without being seen by a human being until they need to confirm the cause of a fall or physical discomfort. To better enable fall prevention practices, care staff are able to view a photo shot 30 seconds before a patient falls down in order to find out the reason for the fall.

With KNN’s latest software upgrade, all staff and patients in shot have their faces blurred to guarantee privacy, while still allowing to interpret the care situation in the room.

The addition of automatic face blurring to the KNN solution adds an extra level of privacy for anyone in these environments, similar to the automatic anonymisation solutions used by Google Maps or Amazon Rekognition.

Dr. Harro Stokman, CEO of Kepler Vision Technologies, said: “As machine learning tools continue to proliferate throughout the healthcare sector, ensuring these systems provide benefits without compromising patient’s privacy and dignity is of paramount importance.

“While our Kepler Night Nurse system already provides privacy because the video feeds it monitors are only ever “seen” by the algorithm, automatically blurring the faces in this closed system will provide an extra level of privacy for both patients, and staff who are concerned that KNN could be used to spy on them.

“We look forward to announcing further upgrades to the KNN that will improve its monitoring capabilities, ease of use, and ensure continued transparency.”

Earlier this year, Kepler Vision Technologies launched a new range of non-intrusive smart sensors, called Kepler Vision Smart Sensors, to better monitor the wellbeing of elderly patients in care home environments.

Integrated with KNN software, the sensor and software solution transform a monitored video feed into text to alert staff when they are needed. For example, a video feed showing an elderly resident fallen on the floor is indicated by the message “In room 13 a client has fallen who needs help”, delivered to a nurse through the nurse call system.