KENNESAW, Ga. | Jul 24, 2025

Growing old takes a toll on the body, sometimes causing loss of mobility, vision, hearing, and memory.

Despite the commonality of these issues and how likely they are to indicate underlying conditions like dementia, current in-home monitoring systems for the elderly have unaddressed gaps.

Kaden Rogers, a junior computer science major at Kennesaw State University, is spending his summer working to address those gaps with his project “Smart Sensing and Computing for Dementia Care” through the Summer Undergraduate Research Program.

“Elderly people often struggle with the current methods of in-home monitoring systems such as Life Alert or wearables,” Rogers said. “These require the user to remember to wear them and change the batteries.”

Working under Zongxing Xie, an assistant professor in the department of computer science, Rogers is helping create a low-cost, in-home monitoring system that will simplify the process for the user.

In their proposed method, the user’s gait features are monitored by a TI millimeter wave radar. The information is then transferred to a computer and processed. What the data can show is the symmetry of the users walking form, their step time, and their cadence.

If there is an abnormality in any of these, the team then knows that the person is at high-risk of falling or in the early stages of dementia.

– Story by Alyssa Ozment

A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees to its more than 47,000 students. Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia with 11 academic colleges. The university’s vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties, and entrepreneurial spirit draw students from throughout the country and the world. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it among an elite group of only 8 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu.