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1. A New Understanding of ICT Solutions for Older Persons

From September 29th till October 1st, 2009 the first AAL FORUM as the beginning of a series of international conferences took place in the Viennese Hofburg. It was established as the platform and meeting point of the European AAL Joint Programme and 500 international participants were inspired by the event.

Ambient Assisted Living aims at supporting older persons in their daily activities to extend the time they can stay in their preferred home environment. Over 100 speakers and an exhibition with 25 companies and projects from 6 nations focused on this topic and made the event a real success. 30 Austrian end users were also guided through the exhibition. The programme consisted of three parallel tracks in which the European AAL Programme, its national and regional aspects and the impact of innovation and economy were discussed. International experts from industry, academia and funding organisations gave their insights of this young and transdisciplinary topic. Beside technology development the ethical aspects and the end user involvement are on focus as well as new business models. Three workshops also offered the possibility to further elaborate on these key questions. Plenary Session

Highlights

The opening was done by high level representatives of the Austrian Host, the European Commission and Sweden as European council presidency. The keynotes offered an overview of the main challenges: the demographic change, usability for older persons and the new cooperation based on article 169 of the EU-treaty. The Industrial Round Table on the second day set the scene concerning industry, insurance and municipality of this new market.

Exhibition Hofburg

The exhibition provided an overview of already existing products on the market e.g. a remote door opener, devices for monitoring vital data including data transfer or sensors for fall detection up to set up boxes pushing the TV as universal communication interface. Prototypes of serious games for older persons or simulation for rehabilitation could also be tested right there. In the poster exhibition all funded European and Austria AAL projects were presented and young researchers had the possibility to show their ongoing studies in this field.

Historic Ambience

The Viennese Hofburg provided the historic surrounding of this important topic of the future. The FORUM dinner took place at the Orangery of Schönbrunn Palace. The AAL Association and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology appealed the organisation done by Austrian Computer Society. The FORUM programme was planned by the international FORUM committee starting one year before.

Outlook

The proceedings of the AAL FORUM 09 Vienna will include reports of all sessions and long articles of specific topics. The slides of the presentations are ready for download at http://www.ocg.at/AAL-F09.

AAL FORUM Odense 2010 takes place from 15 - 17th of September 2010.

Kerstin Zimmermann, Alexandra Kuhn (BMVIT)

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