VASSIST

The goal of vAssist is to provide specific voice controlled Home Care and Communication Services for older persons. The consortium considers user, technical and economic constraints in a sound methodological setup. A User Centred Market Oriented Design process (UCMOD) involves end users in all phases of the development process considering market aspects from the initial project phase. This procedure assures that the iteratively developed service and business model(s) are adapted to the requirements and needs of older persons showing a high market potential within the next 2-3 years. In the requirement phase focus groups in three different countries (AT, FR, IT) will involve seniors, family members and health professionals. Further, iterative lab and field trials will focus on the evaluation of the developed solution together with all actors focusing on usability, accessibility, user experience and acceptance of the vAssist system.

Objectives

vAssist aims at providing specific voice controlled Home Care and Communication Services for two target groups of older persons: Seniors suffering from chronic diseases and/or suffering from (fine) motor skill impairments. The main goal is the development of simplified and adapted interface variants for tele-medical and communication applications using multilingual natural voice interaction. vAssist aims to enhance the perceived quality of Home Care and Communication services and to reduce costs supporting existing hardware and interfaces in the home of older persons (TV, Smart Phone, PC).

Expected results and impact

The result of vAssist are multilingual natural voice interfaces for a specific set of communication and tele-medicine services along with specific hard and software developments to provide these services in the older users’ home. In this way vAssist will provide an alternative and easy access to existing communication and tele-medical solutions for senior persons. vAssist will reduce costs related to the service delivery by using existing on-site hardware and infrastructure such as TV, Smart Phone and PC.

Partners

Partners involved in the vAssist project

Organization	Type	Country	Website
CURE - Center for Usability Research and Engineering (CURE)	R&D	Austria	www.cure.at
Institut-Télécom (IT)	R&D	France	www.telecom-paristech.fr
Ecole Supérieure d’Ingénieurs en Electronique et Electrotechnique (ESIEE)	R&D	France	www.esiee.fr
Integrazioni e Sistemi SpA (I&S)	SME	Italy	www.isspa.it
Shankaa	SME	France
ASICA Électronique Industrielle	SME	France	www.asica.com
PL.O.T EDV-Planungs- und HandelsGesmbH (PLOT)	SME	Austria	www.plot.at
Assistance Publique des Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP)	End User	France	www.aphp.fr
EURAG Austria	End User	Austria	www.eurag.at
MobyView (MV)	SME	France	www.mobyview.com

Project name: Voice Controlled Assistive Care and Communication Services for the Home (vAssist)
Website: http://vassist.cure.at
Coordinator: CURE – Center for Usability Research and Engineering (CURE), Austria
Duration: 36 Months
Starting Date: 01.12.2011
Total budget: € 2.345.104,00
Public contribution: € 1.432.218,00

Contact

Bernhard Wöckl

E.: woeckl@cure.at

T.: +43.1.743 54 51 – 217

Manfred Tscheligi

E.: tscheligi@cure.at

T.: +43.1.743 54 51 – 600