The AI4ActiveAGE project has been endorsed by the advisory board of the WIR Alliance ZukunfTAlter.
The project addresses one of the most important cornerstones of the WIR Alliance: the WIR region
is encouraged to develop new growth prospects in the context of aging, care, and
health in order to successfully navigate demographic developments and structural
change. ZukunfTAlter ties in here with the innovation field of gerontechnology,
focusing on smart home and AAL solutions.
The region lacks providers of end-user-related applications and products in
the context of digitalization—despite the high potential of an innovative niche market that
offers applications, services, and products for seniors that not only
ensure modern health and care provision, but also make living and
the living environment easier and contribute to a healthy, self-determined,
successful aging process. For the development and consolidation of such a
market, not only are actors from the health and social sciences relevant to the
“ZukunfTAlter” alliance, but also those who provide the relevant technological and
economic know-how and expertise from science and research. In order to
meet the difficult challenge of self-determined living in old age or for people
with limitations, there are already some implementations with technical
assistance, but these have only led to limited success.
This project therefore takes an innovative approach to identifying people's needs
and providing user-centered assistance tailored to the individual user in every situation.
However, as users' life situations are constantly
changing, the necessary flexibility can only be achieved if people do not have to adapt to
the technology, but rather the technology directly involves people.
This requires a highly flexible software platform that goes far beyond previous smart living
automation and can directly reuse recognized situations and link them to
assistance services. To this end, applications are to be based on the semantic
software architecture of the universAAL platform and integrated into a controller produced in the region,
which should be easy to install without requiring extensive prior knowledge, whether in new buildings or as a retrofit.
Due to the great economic
potential, especially in the field of artificial intelligence and hardware manufacturing,
a new industry based on this technology is to be established in the region.
Other manufacturers in the region can set up their products on the expandable platform
and craftsmen can be trained. This allows implementations to be viewed as a whole
: technical solutions must be implemented in such a way that they are accepted
and offer proven economic savings potential, good solutions
must be available in the respective region, and potential buyers must
contact persons for installation, maintenance, and operation in the region. Only
when all four factors are implemented will the market for innovative products be opened up.
The AI4ActiveAge project thus helps to implement one of the most important challenges of the
ZukunfTAlter alliance.
The social gerontology research institute “Health, Aging, Work, Technology”
(GAT) at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences takes a social design approach
to the target group-specific development of innovative technologies and services with
specific practical relevance in the regional context of Upper Lusatia/Eastern Saxony. The focus
is on coping with accelerated demographic and social change in
rural areas (rapid population aging, migration of younger people, shortage of skilled workers,
increasing uncertainty in the face of the transformation to the world of work 4.0 / Industry 4.0).
To this end, we are creating the conditions for the transfer of research results into the
lives of older people, their relatives, housing companies, care providers,
health organizations, politicians, and tradespeople. Based on our expertise
in researching the acceptance and practical suitability of assistive technologies,
we are creating a training program for supervisors and tradespeople as a project partner in the AI4ActivAGE project
caregivers and tradespeople that will facilitate the integration and operation of flexible AAL technology.
In addition, we are providing support with our expertise in social gerontology and with
the participation of user groups in all stages of development through cross-AP
discussions in the project. We therefore see the project as a great opportunity to
contribute to overcoming emerging social challenges in rural eastern Saxony,
especially in terms of tapping into potential for maintaining a high
quality of life, independence, and self-determination for older people in
rural areas.
