Evaluation of Smart Phones for Remote Control of a Standard Hospital Room

The standard hospital room interface for control of communication and entertainment devices assumes a patient has the ability to hold and press mechanical switches. If the patient does not have these abilities, then the patient must wait for a nurse to walk by the room to ask for help. Mobile devices using the Android and iOS operating systems are compared to accommodate the limitations of a patient for communication and control of the hospital room environment. In order to design an appropriate system, analysis of currently available off-the-shelf technology is performed to find the appropriate configuration that is compatible with the hospital room environment and covers a clear patient need. Evaluation of components for a fully integrated system is shown. Strengths and weaknesses of each technology are discussed. Progress toward an integrated solution on a tablet is provided in the conclusion.