PAELIFE

Starting with an analysis of the existing Internet services and household ICT devices/gadgets targeted to the citizens and, in particular, to the elderly, that enhance social life and productivity, we will study the existing HCI gaps that hinder their effective adoption by the elderly. From these international studies we will select a set of Internet services and domestic ICT devices and will generate credible usage scenarios and derive corresponding user requirements and pilot applications. The project expects to empower the elderly users with a Personal Life Assistant (PLA), that will mediate and facilitate the interaction of senior citizens, with technological devices such as computers, tablets, game consoles, smartphones and home automation modules. PLA will improve the accessibility to existing services in the web, such as interactive online courses, social and entertainment media. All this will be made possible at people’s homes, since elderly have sometimes some level of impairments caused by age, which reduces their mobility.

Objectives

AAL PaeLIFE joins a consortium of 8 partners (Portugal, France, Hungary and Poland), focusing on individuals who are recently retired, who are used to some level of technology usage and who want to keep themselves active, independent, productive and socially engaged. PaeLIFE is our proposal for a Personal Life Assistant (PLA), a virtual presence who supports social communication, learning/teaching and entertainment and new solution of multimodal (speech, touch, gesture, biometric) Human Computer Interaction, making the elderly relationship with computers and technology easier and more natural.

Expected results and impact

By designing the optimal mix of Human-Computer Interfaces (HCI) modalities that suit usage context and are able to deal with the momentary capabilities of the elderly, PaeLife enables the improvement of the interaction capacities. Therefore with our PLA the elderly will be able to interface with a range of services in the Internet at home. PaeLife will bring improved communication capabilities and productivity to these citizens, enhancing social interaction, providing more autonomy, better sense of control, safety and self-esteem, allowing active ageing and improving quality of life.

Partners

Partners involved in the Paelife project

Organization	Type	Country	Website
MSFT – Software para Microcomputadores, LDA	SME	Portugal	www.microsoft.com
INESC ID, Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa	R&D	Portugal	www.inesc-id.pt
BME, Budapest University of Technology and Economics	R&D	Hungary	www.bme.hu
The Bay Zoltán Foundation for Applied Research	R&D	Hungary	www.bayzoltan.hu/bay-ikti
SSW, Knowledge Society Association	End User	Poland	www.ssw.org.pl
Genitech	SME	France	genitech.com
University of Technology of Troyes	R&D	France	www.utt.fr/en/index.html
University de Aveiro	R&D	Portugal	www.ua.pt

Project name: PaeLife – Personal Assistant to Enhance the Social Life of the Seniors
Website:
Coordinator: MSFT – Software para Microcomputadores, LDA (Microsoft Portugal)
Duration: 24 Months
Starting Date: 24.02.2012
Total budget: € 1.700.964,25
Public contribution: € 1.308.551,85

Contact

Miguel Sales Dias

E.: Miguel.Dias@microsoft.com

T.: +351 962 093 324,