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Project Topic
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According to statistics, one in every three adults ageing 65 or older falls every year. The consequences of falls have severe impact on quality of life, independence and confidence, ultimately increasing the risk of early death. Active@Home tackles the challenge of supporting independently living for longer by providing technology for falls prevention, which will contribute to avoid injuries and preserve the physical integrity of the older person, a critical condition for independent living. The preventive interventions proposed in this solution use the concepts of games to promote adherence and aim at actively involving the older person, giving them the possibility to choose the sensors (smartphone, IMU, Kinect, etc) and activities (games, workouts, dance, Tai Chi) that are better suited for him/her, considering that all these activities will have the potential of preventing falls by reducing the risks related to physical – balance, strength, posture, flexibility –, cognitive and social skills. Moreover, the risk of falling increases as age advances, therefore, and in order for the solution to have maximised impact, the target group of this solution is population ageing 55 or older. It will use off-the-shelf technology, mainly HDMI micro PCs that can be easily connected to TVs, smartphones or a customised IMU as main sensors for movement tracking and a centralised server that will handle all data and where a decision support system based on fall risk assessment algorithms will be running. An advanced system for human body motion modeling and design of new dances and/or new tai-chi poses is also included. The business model includes the available distribution channels that are known to the business partners of the consortium. These will be incentivized with interesting business cases. The end-user participation will be significant, with 20 test users in three countries (Switzerland, The Netherlands and Portugal).
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