- Title: IoT tech bid to extend pensioners' lives
- Date: 22nd May 2017
- Summary: MAR AREGO'S SMARTPHONE, MONITORING HER GRANDMOTHER'S ACTIVITY IN REAL TIME
- Embargoed: 5th June 2017 10:50
- Keywords: app IoT Internet of Things care MySphera elderly sensor pensioner European Commission
- Location: VALENCIA, SPAIN
- City: VALENCIA, SPAIN
- Country: Spain
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Science
- Reuters ID: LVA0026HX7NMJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A European Commission (EC) pilot project called Activage is aiming to increase the ability of elderly people across the continent to live more independent lives.
Various Internet of Things (IoT) technological platforms have been brought together in the pilot, including UniversAAL, FIWARE, SOFIA2, OpenIot, and SensiNACT.
The project consists of deploying a series of sensors, both in and out of an elderly person's home, allowing formal and informal caregivers to monitor their behaviour in real time.
The idea behind Activage is that carers will be helped to identify risky situations and unusual behaviour, therefore providing the opportunity for early intervention.
In Valencia sensors made by Spanish firm Mysphera are used in elderly trial participants' homes, modelling their pattern of behaviour and reporting any deviation in routines and habits to the caregiver via an App available on mobile devices.
With this information, caregivers can intervene and make the changes needed to improve an elderly person's quality of life.
Eighty-four-year-old Valencian Sara Casademunt is taking part in the project and spoke positively of the experience.
"I feel relaxed knowing that my relatives are monitoring me through the server or whatever camera they have, I think it's great and I feel comfortable," said Casademunt.
Sara's granddaughter, Mar Arego, is also participating in the project.
"I control her activity in her house, I see if she has left the house, if she comes back, if she had lunch or dinner. If something is different from her usual routine, it's a signal that something is going wrong," said Arego.
Activage aims to increase the ability of the elderly to live independently by up to two years, making a positive impact in their quality of life, allowing for savings in public services and private family budgets, says Mario Lecumberri, project manager of the Integral Social Initiative.
"We can increase the time this person lives in his or her own house, and this produces a very important reduction in the amount of the money from social services or even from their private services," said Lecumberri.
With an ageing European population putting increasing pressure on social care budgets across the continent, the project's website states that it aims to help governments and families find ways "to do more with less".
The Activage project includes 49 partners in nine different European countries: Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, United Kingdom and Switzerland.
On the official Activage website it reads: "Activage will build the first European interoperable and open IoT ecosystem, re-using and scaling up underlying open and proprietary IoT platforms, technologies and standards, that will enable the deployment and operation at large scale of Active & Healthy Ageing IoT based solutions and services."
Public administrations, universities, research centres and NGOs are also participating in its implementation.
The project began in January 2017 and is due to run for three and a half years. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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