By John Nolan
The Associated Press

Robert Reeves retooled his Toledo home and his life last year when he and his wife moved his elderly parents in with them and began caring for them around the clock.

Mr. Reeves, 54, a retired toolmaker, converted a garage and utility room into a one-bedroom apartment with bathroom for his mother, Phyllis, who was slowed by a stroke that caused her memory loss, and father William, who suffers from dementia. His mother, 87, died a month ago. Mr. Reeves and his wife continue to care for his 90-year-old father.

"I had no children. It's like having two kids move into the house," the son said.

Beginning in January, Miami University researchers hope to help the Reeveses and other Ohio families who care for people with dementia by providing donated electronic monitoring equipment. The equipment will allow them freedom at least to work in the yard or make a quick trip to the store.

The equipment includes household motion sensors and tennis ball-size cameras, which would provide video monitoring similar to closed-circuit television.

Sensors the size of a deck of cards can alert caregivers to the opening of a door, turning on of an appliance, or the running of water in a tub or sink. The sensor would send a signal to a dedicated Web site and then on to the caregiver's portable phone - or to a computer at a relative's home.

The monitoring equipment can notify a caregiver by e-mail, pager or text messaging through a Web-based wireless telephone.

"This monitoring equipment is really going to help," Mr. Reeves said. "I'm always looking for technology that could help me."

The researchers plan to share their results with the state and agencies for the elderly that are providing about $100,000 in funding.

Mr. Reeves cooks his father's meals, helps him with showers and brushing teeth and spends the day at home while his wife, Diane Bellmore-Reeves, works as a manicurist.

"Because of the dementia, he asks every once in a while where Phyllis is. I tell him what happened, and he cries all over again," the son said.

He uses a video monitor in his father's quarters to track movements and whether his father has fallen and needs help. But the monitoring equipment available through the Miami study could free the son to leave the house because of the system's ability to alert him to a problem, Mr. Reeves said.

Xanboo Inc., which developed the World Wide Web-based monitoring equipment to provide security for homes and businesses, has donated the equipment.

Study participants will include 20 families in northwestern Ohio and five in the Mansfield area.