ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY FOR OPERATING NURSING HOMES AND OTHER HEALTH CARE FACILITIES

1 - 38 . (canceled)

39 . A method in a computing system, the method being performed in a residential health care facility, the method comprising:

in a mobile sensor device that generates information about a state of a person to whom the sensor is assigned:

transmitting a signal in which the generated information is encoded;

in each of two or more monitoring devices each having a known location in the residential health care facility:

receiving the signal transmitted by the sensor device;

determining an indication of a strength at which the received signal was received;

transmitting to a server one or more messages collectively containing a representation of the generated information encoded in the received signal and the determined indication of the strength at which the received signal was received;

in the server:

receiving the messages transmitted by monitoring devices;

using the representation of the generated information to determine that the mobile sensor device is in an alarm state;

using the strength indications in the received messages together with the known locations of the monitoring devices to predict a location in the residential health care facility of the mobile sensor device;

dispatching an alarm to a caregiver in a way that reflects the predicted location.

40 . The method of claim 39 wherein the mobile sensor device is a pressure sensor that generates information about departure of a person from a wheelchair presently bearing the mobile sensor device.

41 . The method of claim 39 wherein the dispatching reflects the predicted location by explicitly identifying the predicted location.

42 . The method of claim 39 wherein the dispatching reflects the predicted location by selecting a caregiver to whom to dispatch the alarm who is predicted to be near the location predicted for the mobile sensor device.

43 . The method of claim 42 , further comprising:

in the server:

using information originated by a mobile device carried by the selected caregiver to predict that the selected caregiver is near the location predicted for the mobile sensor device.

44 . The method of claim 43 , further comprising:

in the server:

receiving the information originated by the mobile device from the mobile device.

45 . The method of claim 43 , further comprising:

in the server:

receiving the information originated by the mobile device from each of one or more monitoring devices.

46 . The method of claim 43 wherein the mobile device is a smart phone.

47 . The method of claim 43 wherein the mobile device is an identification badge.

48 . One or more computer memories collectively having contents configured to cause a computing system to perform a method for managing one or more resting place departure monitoring devices in a residential facility, the comprising:

causing to be displayed on a dynamic display device:

visual information identifying one or more selected monitoring devices in the residential facility, and

controls each corresponding to a configuration setting of the monitoring devices;

receiving input interacting with one of the displayed controls in order to change one of the monitoring device configuration settings;

in response to receiving the input, for each of the selected one or more monitoring devices, causing the monitoring device's configuration to be adapted to be consistent with the changed monitoring device configuration setting.

49 . The computer memories of claim 48 , the method further comprising:

causing to be displayed on the dynamic display device a control for selecting one or more monitoring devices in the residential facility,

and wherein the displayed visual information identifying one or more selected monitoring devices identifies monitoring devices selected using the displayed control for selecting one or more monitoring devices.

50 . The computer memories of claim 48 wherein, for a distinguished one of the one or more monitoring devices, the causing changes the configuration of the distinguished monitoring device from being consistent with a present state of a physical configuration control on the monitoring device to being inconsistent to the present state of the physical configuration control.

51 - 62 . (canceled)

63 . One or more instances of computer-readable medium collectively having contents configured to cause a computing system to perform a method for predicting the location of a radio broadcasting device, the method comprising:

for each of three known locations:

receiving an indication of a strength at which a radio broadcast by the device is received at the location;

using the indicated strength to estimate a range from the location of the device;

determining at least a portion of a circle about the location whose radius is the estimated range;

for each pair of the three locations:

determining a line that passes through both locations of the pair;

for each location of the pair, determining a point at which the determined line intersects with the at least a portion of a circle determined about the location;

determining a center point between the determined points;

defining a line containing the determined center point and the location not among the pair of locations;

determining a triangle formed by the intersection of the defined lines;

determining a centroid of the determined triangle; and

predicting that the device is located at the determined centroid.