HELmee

HELmee is an open-source software framework designed to support the development of assistive technologies for home and clinical settings. Its name is sometimes expanded to Human-Engagement and Life Monitoring Environment Engine, but HELmee is commonly treated as the project name. The framework integrates sensors, wearables, and smart devices to monitor safety, health, and well-being, and to provide adaptive assistance while preserving user privacy.

Developed in the early 2020s by a collaborative network of universities, care providers, and independent developers, HELmee is maintained as an open-source project with a distributed governance model. It emphasizes interoperability with standards for health data and smart devices.

The architecture is modular: a runtime core hosts data connectors, analytics, and user interfaces. The data layer supports streaming and historical storage, with a privacy layer for access control and data minimization. It supports rule-based modules and machine learning components, and offers REST and MQTT interfaces to external devices. A web dashboard provides monitoring, configuration, and visualization of metrics.

Typical use cases include fall detection, medication reminders, activity monitoring, and environmental control in smart homes or care facilities. It aims to be hardware-agnostic and supports common wearables and ambient sensors. Localization and accessibility features are included to accommodate diverse users.

HELmee is distributed under the Apache License 2.0 and is supported by a community of contributors. It has seen adoption in academic labs and pilot programs to study human-technology interaction, privacy, and usability in real-world care scenarios. Documentation and sample projects assist researchers and practitioners in setup and evaluation.