HAPPY AGEING

HAPPY AGEING system will be composed of three main modules:

a lifestyle monitor, able to record main activities taking place in the home and compare them with habits of the monitored subject;
a navigation assistant to support the user in moving in close environment;
a personal assistant characterized by two main groups of functions:

support in reminding or performing actions;
support in searching for personal objects such as spectacles or keys all around the home.

End users, their families and carers constitute the core of the project: their needs and expectations will drive all the design and development phases and will be completely assessed in the final pilot phase. The end-users involvement will be completed by a field trial on 15 older people, in three countries (IT, HU, NL), including the analysis of the technical achievements/requirements, acceptance and usability of the prototypes, ergonomics and psychological aspects, and data for the Cost Benefit Analysis.

Objectives

The Happy Ageing project objectives are:

to prevent the incidence of chronic conditions and to manage such conditions when present, supporting independent living;
to develop and integrate a customizable system matching the demand for technology by the elderly with current market supply;
to directly involve the end-user in the development phase, assessing the user’s expectations and needs, assuring user acceptance of the new system;
to stimulate business innovation and create market opportunities to distribute and sell HAPPY AGEING devices.

Expected results and impact

There is considerable scope for the development and application of assistive technology to make the homes of older people more able to support care, either self-care or by others. HAPPY AGEING, will stress this issue, trying to reduce the costs for caring with a less use of institute and to strength the position of older persons as active consumers, making their individual demands clearer by a deep analysis of user’s needs.

Partners

Partners involved in the HAPPY AGEING project

Organization	Type	Country	Website
ISTITUTO NAZIONALE DI RIPOSO E CURA PER ANZIANI V.E. II (INRCA)	R&D	Italy	www.inrca.it
FUNDACIÓ PRIVADA CETEMMSA (CETEMMSA)	R&D	Spain	www.cetemmsa.com
SPEED AUTOMAZIONE Srl (SPD)	Large Industry	Italy	www.speedautomazi.it
GLOBAL SECURITY INTELLIGENCE LIMITED (GSI)	SME	United Kingdom	globalseci.com
AB.ACUS Srl (ABACUS)	SME	Italy	www.ab-acus.com
INSTITUTE OF SOCIOLOGY, HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (ISO)	R&D	Hungary	socorg.socio
ASSOCIATION OF CATHOLIC ORGANIZATIONS OF SENIOR CITIZENS (UNIEKBO)	End User	Netherlands	www.uniekbo.nl

Project name: A Home based APProach to the Years of AGEING
Website: http://happyageing.info/
Coordinator: INRCA, Italy
Duration: 28 Months
Starting Date: 01.04.2009
Total budget: € 1.673.779
Public contribution: € 986.153

Contact

Dr. Fiorella Marcellini

E.: f.marcellini@inrca.it

T.: 0039 071 800 4788