Delos Living, a real estate and technology company, recently launched the DARWIN Home Wellness Intelligence platform that passively monitors and calibrates the home environment to help enhance the health and wellbeing of occupants.
The ‘always-on’ system brings together a proprietary sensor monitoring platform and solutions across air filtration, water purification, circadian lighting and comfort features.
“Despite most of human history spent outside, we now spend nearly 90% of our time indoors, and yet rarely focus on the impact the indoor environment can have on our health and well-being,” Delos CEO and founder Paul Scialla said, adding that Delos’ solution aims “to bring the benefits of natural outdoor conditions inside,” so as to reduce stress, improve sleep quality and enhance overall well-being of homeowners.
“For years, the value proposition of smart technology in the home has been elusive for the masses,” Delos Chief Technology Officer Jim Hunter said. “These technologies have primarily focused on security, energy, convenience and entertainment. However, it is the health and well-being of the ones we love that is most valuable.”
The DARWIN platform was developed with architects as well as building science, health science and behavioral science professionals. It is powered by a cloud-based algorithms and works with an ecosystem of compatible products and solutions.
Delos’ wellness technologies and solutions have been adopted in commercial real estate market in 35 countries, and the DARWIN platform marks the company’s first offering expansion in the smart home market. The company is partnering with dealers, installers and builders across the globe for the roll-out.
Among Delos’ early partners is Australia-based Simonds Homes, which will offer the DARWIN as part of its base package in all new homes in the state of Victoria starting this month.
Healthcare’s Importance Grows in Smart Homes
Growing alongside the emerging smart home trend is the potential for healthcare services – remote patient monitoring, simple medication reminders or answers to health information queries – to be integrated. “But the true potential of a smart home that offers care lies in identifying the unique health needs of each individual residing in a home—from infants or the elderly—and serving those unique needs simultaneously,” says a Frost & Sullivan report.
Driven by the Internet of Things (IoT) and other technologies, smart home can deliver improved consumer experiences by communicating data between wearables, home monitoring devices, home-based sensors, consumer electronics and mobile apps.
A research from Parks Associates shows that more than one-fourth of U.S. households use an app to track or manage their health or wellness, with adoption highest among consumers ages 18-34. Up to 40% of app users have two or more health-related apps.
The intelligent homes of the future will bring together technologies to offer a holistic picture of person's health, providing quantifiable changes over time. An example would be the smart toilets and sensors in the home that analyze factors such as the number of bathroom visits, urine output and chemical composition.
Digital healthcare vendors are increasingly looking to integrate their products with smart homes, to allow monitoring and care for all residents in a home.
The ubiquity of broadband connectivity, development of smart sensors and the decreasing costs of devices have made it possible to offer specific care solutions for patients in their own homes, including chronic disease management and post-acute care services and services for the elderly, according to Frost & Sullivan.