Summaries of the Projects aal-2009-2 (ict based solutions for Advancement of Social Interaction of Elderly People)

AAL-2009-2-088

The objective of the project is to create a new user oriented social interaction tool that enables elderly people to stay or get in touch with family, friends and neighbors and which helps to find local activity, health and wellbeing offers. Social interaction and an active lifestyle are the keys for a healthy and enjoyable ageing, and their significant effects on primary, secondary and tertiary prevention are a common sense. The increasing distances to relatives and friends, the diversification of information and the user unfriendly communication devices for senior citizens are still a barrier for easy social interaction nowadays. Therefore, simplifying and stimulating social interaction with the help of new information and communication technologies and inclusion into virtual social networks are as well part of the main objectives, as giving information and easy access to relevant activity offers and thereby fostering face-to-face meetings and communication what is even more important for this age group. The core idea is to integrate all relevant ICT technologies and applications into an existing digital (touch screen) picture frame. Pictures are a favorable bridge for the memory (especially for elderly) and very useful for stimulation and motivation and are in addition a good opportunity to integrate individual commemoration and preferences. Basic product functions are an easy drag and drop features, slideshows, (video) callings with family, friends and care providers, suitable activity offers for physical and emotional needs and interests, and the integration of local services. To give an application example; the user selects friends and activities from illustrated lists. Through pulling the pictures onto a free timeslot in a calendar, an automatic registration for the activity is transmitted to the provider, and if desired the friend gets an invitation to his device (SI-Screen or mobile).

Project duration: 36 months Web site:

Involved countries/national agencies: DE, ES (ISCIII), ES (MiTYC), AT

Total project cost: € 2,75 million Grant € 1,57 million EC contribution € 0,62 million

AAL-2009-2-077

Social media is an ideal means for elderly people to enrich their social life and share their knowledge. But unfamiliar technology and lack of computer skills are preventing them using it. Also the present social media services are more focused on younger people. Our objective is to make social media usable for elderly people with advanced and easy-to-use content creation, management and assistive user interaction technologies by: -building social media applications and activities around the content -providing easy ways to create, store and share knowledge, experiences and memories -to support online communication, social interaction and creation of social networks with different kind of people such as family and friends, former colleagues and similar minded people -developing tools that support co experience and co presence -developing easy, adaptable and guided user interfaces for creating, managing and sharing content taking into account the mental and physical capabilities of the elderly people -the service can be used with users own language and it supports multicultural communication We know that social media services focused at elderly people and user interfaces adapted to their skill levels will raise the their quality of life: prevent loneliness with new channels for communication and social life, promote real get-together, support the mental and physical vitality and sustain the feeling that they and their knowledge are an important part of the community. SoMedAll user interfaces will make persons feel themselves as masters of technology and services instead of getting frustrated. Our project produces a platform with a variety of easy-to-use, adaptive and assistive user interfaces for the technology allready at home including: web, PC or IPTV and mobile phone taking into account the skill levels and possible disabilities of the users. We implement a prototype service, test use it among the elderly over EU national borders.

Project duration: 24 months Web site:

Involved countries/national agencies: FI, AT, SI

Total project cost: € 1,62 million Grant € 0,79 million EC contribution € 0,31 million

AAL-2009-2-084

The project aims at facilitating and promoting access of elderly and early retired people to online collaboration projects. It thereby provides the target group, which hitherto has been underrepresented on online platforms, with new possibilities for social interaction and participation in value creating activities. At the same time the project attempts to harness the immense reservoir of potentially active elderly people to boost collaboration in online communities. The focus is on two types of online communities: (partly target oriented) online communities for elderly people (such as Seniorwebs) as well as goal-oriented communities with a predominantly young user base (such as Wikimedia Communities). The project addresses two major challenges with regard to promoting participation of elderly people in online communities: (1) the development, testing and dissemination of effective methods to encourage elderly people to take an active part in online communities and to facilitate inter-generational integration in such communities; (2) user interface design and functionality design tailored to the special needs of elderly people (but also taking into account the needs of a wider community, inter-cultural differences, and the effectiveness of technically mediated social interactions). Thus, from a “product” perspective, the project’s main outputs are: (1) A draft inventory of methods for “mobilisation” and “inclusion & motivation”, and corresponding guidelines, which will be consolidated into a handbook for online community consultants. (2) Improved user inter-faces as well as prototypes for innovative approaches to supporting social interactions in online community settings.

Project duration: 36 months Web site: www.thirdageonline.eu

Involved countries/national agencies: CH, NL, DE

Total project cost: € 2,87 million Grant € 1,48 million EC contribution € 0,27 million

AAL-2009-2-325

T Break is the first European collaboration designed to develop a service to be utilized by a multifaceted market segment. This includes the end users (ie individuals diagnosed with osteoporosis) end user groups including patient support groups, doctors, companies interested in osteoporosis and public policy makers. The service is a grass roots network of 'social' osteoporosis patient support groups developed by using a combination of Information and Communication (ICT) based solutions together with traditional media and in person meetings. Through research conducted through the DBD, the collaboration is designed to gain a more accurate understanding of the real world of diagnosed patient communications as it relates to osteoporosis and its management as well as a better understanding of online usage of social networking tools by the elderly across Europe. The program is designed to better understand current channels of communication as well as the wishes, needs, interests and knowledge of the individuals.

Project duration: 18 months Web site: www.osteolink.org

Involved countries/national agencies: CH, UK, AT

Total project cost: € 1,35 million Grant € 0,35 million EC contribution € 0,03 million

AAL-2009-2-129

The aim of TRAINUTRI is to raise consciousness about self wellness, enabling the exchange of knowledge related to physical and nutritional healthy habits The project will help people to develop healthy habits (keeping them physically active and actively involved into their health maintenance) and will enable people to share and exchange healthy habits related activities, experiences and knowledge helping them to keep and enrich their social relationships while they age in their preferred environments. TRAINUTRI will therefore offer services oriented to achieve: 1.A network of peers involved with the healthy living habits and goals (users and fellows, trainers, nutrition experts, etc). 2.Healthy eating habits evaluation and support for sensible nutrition. 3.Adequate and enjoyable exercise evaluation and support for physical-mental training. TRAINUTRI platform brings to users an environment configuring a scenario where: -Active elderly people who can exercise outdoors will use an exercise monitor linked to the TRAINUTRI platform. Their achievements will be recorded in the platform and advice will be fed back both as messages and under the supervision of a trainer. An expert system will be used to analyse data gathered and guide the users with feedback. -People with limited mobility will mainly exercise indoors, but in connection to a network of peers. Virtual reality tools will be the basis of these services. -Nutrition monitoring and advice. All clients of the TRAINUTRI platform will receive nutrition advice tailored to their needs (loose or gain weight, increase vegetable intake). To tailor this advice their weight and eating habits will be monitored. -Support and motivation from the network of peers. Information on the progress of each of the users will be made available to his/her group of peers. The platform will be prepared to hold contests among groups of clients. Face to face activities related to training and healthy eating will be also organised.

Project duration: 24 months Web site:

Involved countries/national agencies: ES (MiTYC), ES (ISCIII), GR, CH

Total project cost: € 3,03 million Grant € 1,39 million EC contribution € 0,34 million

AAL-2009-2-107

V2me proposes an adaptive and cost-effective solution for the advancement of social interactions of senior individuals. This unique V2me approach combines state-of-the-art social science knowledge with high-tech R&D expertise to develop, evaluate and market an innovative ICT solution that excels in terms of (a) end user acceptance, (b) the potential to increase social connectedness and (c) personal well-being, and (d) reduced care costs. The V2me Virtual Coach, designed as an intelligent combination of off-the-shelf technology (hardware and software), actively initiates and mediates social relationships with friends and partners as well as professional contacts through social networks. The V2me User Avatar addresses the feeling of loneliness by providing a personalized and adaptive means for representation the senior individual and for it’s participation in prolonged and enjoyable para-social relationships. Consequently V2me aims at integrating elderly people in pleasant social networks and meaningful activities, enhances physical and mental fitness, empowers reciprocal assistance and help, and thus reduces societal challenges through increased health costs and care expenditures. The easy-to-use V2me solution gives senior citizens not only pleasure, but also quick access to existing and new social contacts with maximized control and protection. The V2me solution will be developed with intensive primary and secondary end user involvement throughout the complete development and evaluation processes. Large-scale longitudinal field tests in all five V2me partner countries (Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and The Netherlands) based on local pilot installations will ensure the highest degrees of sustained end user acceptance in diverse cultural settings and also maximise the Europe-wide market exploitation possibilities.

Project duration: 36 months Web site:

Involved countries/national agencies: DE, NO, FI, AT, LUX

Total project cost: € 4,35 million Grant € 2,69 million EC contribution € 1,05 million

AAL-2009-2-026

The key goal of the WeCare project is to empower the elderly to successfully adopt the concept of social networking into their daily lives. Social networking can become a very effective and vital communication and social interaction tool should mobility be reduced due to ill-health or handicap; improving seniors autonomy making it possible for them to live longer at home and enhancing their quality of life. One internet service, WeCare 2.0, will be developed. The system aims –amongst others- to provide support to family and friends who provide informal care. As a result, the demand for professional care and social services will decrease. The service integrates communication, coordination and information, and helps people to participate within and between social networks using adaptable Graphical User Interface technologies focusing on the needs and abilities of the end user that can be deployed on multiple types of hardware ranging from mobile phones to interactive displays. The service includes emerging state of the art social collaboration Web 2.0 technologies such as easy-to-use activity planners, video communication, forums and news. Seniors and stakeholders will be involved during the project, to ensure that WeCare 2.0 matches their needs and preferences. User trials will be conducted in The Netherlands, Ireland, Spain and Finland. The project aims to highlight how the WeCare 2.0 system can be easily adapted to meet the needs and requirements of various user groups and thereby increasing the chances for successful commercialisation of the system. A strategic business plan will be developed to outline the proposed market entry strategy for the WeCare 2.0 system. The consortium has considerable proven technical expertise and strong skills sets. The consortium is well-balanced and includes research and user organisations (TNO, ANBO; I2BC, FASS; VTT, Caritas), a large industrial partner (Ericsson) and several SME’s (ShareCare, Videra, Skytek).

Project duration: 30 months web site: www.wecare-project.eu