How to keep an eye on an elderly parent who lives alone in Singapore, without cameras

The hard part is the silence

When a parent lives alone, the moment that worries most families is not the one where Mum phones to say something is wrong. It is the quiet one. She does not pick up, and you cannot tell whether she is asleep, at the market, or on the bathroom floor. A camera would answer that, but most older people reasonably do not want to be filmed in their own home. A pendant alarm only helps if it is being worn and the person is able to press it.

Birdhouse works from movement alone. Small sensors notice that someone moved in the kitchen at 7:40, opened the front door at 9:15 and came back at 11:02. Over a few days that adds up to a picture of an ordinary day. Birdhouse then tells you when today does not look like that, and tells you plainly when everything looks fine.

What goes into the home

The sensors run on batteries. There is nothing to wear or charge, and your parent does not need a smartphone or have to learn anything. Birdhouse records movement signals and their times, never images or sound.

Setting it up

1. Create an account in the Birdhouse app (on the web at app.birdhouse.sg/app) and confirm your email with the 6-digit code we send.
2. Scan the QR sticker on the hub, or paste the link printed under it. Give the home a name that only you and the people you invite will see, such as “Mum’s flat”.
3. Confirm who the hub monitors.
4. Add the sensors one at a time. Bring each one close to the hub, hold its button for about 5 seconds until the light blinks, then pick the room it is in.
5. Look through the suggested alerts Birdhouse offers for each room, and keep, adjust or skip them.
6. Invite brothers, sisters or a helper as Managers (who can change alerts and sensors) or Viewers (who see activity and get alerts).

Rooms matter more than they seem. Activity reads as “Movement in Kitchen”, and rules such as “too long in the bathroom” need to know which sensor is in the bathroom.

What Birdhouse watches for

These are the alerts suggested when you place sensors. All times are Singapore time and every one can be changed:

• No movement anywhere at home for 4 hours between 08:00 and 22:00. Urgent.
• Not up by 10am, with a bedroom sensor: no movement in the bedroom, bathroom or kitchen between 05:00 and 10:00. Important.
• Too long in the bathroom: still there after 45 minutes with no movement anywhere else. Urgent.
• Front door left open for more than 10 minutes, and front door opened at night between 23:00 and 06:00. Important.
• Out for a long time: more than 12 hours away from home, if there is a door sensor. Important.
• Hub and sensor problems: the hub offline, a sensor gone silent, a low battery, so a broken sensor is never mistaken for a quiet day.

The door sensor is worth having. Without it Birdhouse cannot tell an empty flat from someone sitting very still. With it, a door opening followed by 20 minutes without movement counts as “out”. The no-movement alerts pause while your parent is out, and they pick up again with the next movement at home.

Rules can be set per home and per room, for particular days and times. That is covered in dynamic monitoring: alert rules per room.

How you find out

Every alert has a level: Just tell me, Important or Urgent. Each level decides how far the alert travels. Urgent alerts go everywhere you get messages: Telegram, the app and email. If nobody taps “I’ve checked” within 10 minutes, everyone gets it again, and so does the on-call person of the home’s care agency, if it has one. The first person who checks stops the escalation, and everyone else sees who is handling it.

Telegram alerts come from @BirdhouseHomeBot once you link your account, and they work on any phone, Android included. Push notifications need the Birdhouse iPhone app, which is coming to the App Store. Push on Android is not available yet.

An SOS press always gets through. It goes to everyone who looks after the home straight away, ignores quiet hours, and is sent even while other monitoring is paused. The details are in setting up alerts that matter.

Seeing that everything is fine

On most days nothing goes wrong, and the app says so. The home screen shows a status such as All good, with when and where your parent last moved, whether they are at home or out, and today’s movement hour by hour. A daily report arrives at 8am about the day before, and a weekly report arrives on Mondays, on Telegram or by email. You can also ask the Birdhouse assistant in your own words: “How is Mum today?” See daily insights and reports.

What it cannot do

• It is not an emergency service. Birdhouse never calls 995 for you. It alerts the people you have chosen, and they decide what to do. In a life-threatening emergency, call 995.
• It only sees rooms with a sensor. If the bedroom has none, the night shows up as “out or asleep”, not as sleep.
• It notices that movement is missing, not why. An alert means “please check on her”. It is not a diagnosis.
• The hub needs power and internet. If the hub goes offline you are told, but nothing can be seen until it is back.
• It does not replace calls and visits. It helps you notice when one is needed sooner than planned.

What it costs

Birdhouse is a monthly subscription with the hardware included and no separate hardware fee. Basic is S$25/month for a hub and one motion sensor. Essential is S$30/month and adds a door sensor and an SOS button. Extra sensors are S$5/month each. A typical flat with Essential plus bedroom and bathroom sensors comes to S$40/month.