CareTrek: An AI-Assisted Multilingual Navigation and Safety System for Elderly Users

Abstract

Senior citizens often encounter mobility limitations, medical vulnerabilities, and communication difficulties that can delay timely assistance during emergencies. Most existing navigation and health applications are not tailored for elderly needs, lacking simplified interfaces, continuous vital-tracking, and seamless family alert mechanisms. To bridge this gap, this paper introduces CareTrek, an assistive mobile safety and health system developed using React Native, Expo, Supabase, TypeScript, BLE sensors, and real-time GPS tracking. The application integrates continuous location monitoring, SOS alerting, Bluetooth-based health data collection, and a secure family-linking framework into a unified, senior-centric ecosystem. Evaluation through controlled simulations demonstrates reliable background GPS tracking with a ±6–12 m variation, BLE data consistency of 92–95%, and rapid emergency alert propagation under three seconds. With additional privacy safeguards such as Supabase Row-Level Security and encrypted device storage, CareTrek illustrates how sensor-integrated, AI-assisted mobile platforms can meaningfully enhance the safety, independence, and connectedness of elderly users.