Developing a Smart Home Solution Based on Personalized Intelligent Interior Units to Promote Activity and Customized Healthcare for Aging Society

• Published in: Journal of population ageing 2020-06, Vol.13 (2), p.257-280
• Main Authors: Hu, Rongbo, Linner, Thomas, Trummer, Julian, Güttler, Jörg, Kabouteh, Amir, Langosch, Katharina, Bock, Thomas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activity level; Adaptive technology; Age differences; Age related diseases; Aging; Cognitive ability; Consortia; Demography; Flexibility; Geriatrics; Geriatrics/Gerontology; Health care; Health services; Indoor environments; Intelligence; Medicine/Public Health; Modularity; Older people; Prevention programs; Prototypes; Research projects; Smart buildings; Smart houses; Social activities; Social Sciences; Society; Sociology; Teams; World population
• ISSN: 1874-7884; 1874-7876
• DOI: 10.1007/s12062-020-09267-6

The world’s population is aging at an unprecedented pace. Aging society is not only a severe crisis in the developed world, but also a rigorous challenge in emerging economies. Many age-related diseases are fostered by the lack of physical, cognitive, and social activities. Increasing the activity level has many benefits for the elderly and can improve their independence. Based on the analysis of the state-of-the-art and shortcomings of the current smart home solutions, the EU-funded research project REACH aims to develop a service system that will turn clinical and care environments into personalized modular sensing, prevention, and intervention systems that encourage the elderly to become healthy through various activities. To achieve that goal, the research team developed a series of smart furniture (PI 2 Us) that materialize the research concepts and functionality seamlessly into the various environments. Specifically, the development process and the functionality testing results of the PI 2 Us are reported in detail. In addition, a simulated smart home solution concept (TRACK) integrating key assistive technologies developed is proposed to create a comprehensive interior living and care environment for elderly users. Due to its modularity and flexibility, the partial or entire solution can be easily adapted and rapidly deployed in different use case settings in Europe, which allows the project consortium to execute different testing activities. In the next phase, the research team will focus on enhancing the usability and performance of the prototypes in order to eventually push them to the market. In conclusion, this research provides an innovative smart home solution for the industry to mitigate the impact of aging society.