European 'EUR100 one laptop per elderly' project
Do you remember the 'USD100 one laptop per child' project developed by the founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Nicholas Negroponte? Well, the idea has crossed the Atlantic and been given a European twist in the form of an EU funded project to assist Europe's increasing elderly population. The recently launched Older People's e-services at home (OLDES) project will develop an easy-to-use, plug-and-play technological platform for tele-assistance and tele-company which should retail at the low cost of €100 per person. The two-fold system will provide the user with entertainment services through easy to access thematic channels and special interest forums supported by animators. And as for the health care facilities, these will be based on established Internet and tele-care communication standards. The platform will include a wireless environment in the home and medical sensors. These will be linked via a contact centre directly to social services and health care providers so as to raise an alarm if for example the temperature reaches dangerously high levels during the summer. 'OLDES puts older people at the centre and makes their needs the main priority in all developments. This will be achieved through the use of modeling and animation tools to create scenarios designed to elicit responses from older people, their carers and service providers,' explained Dr Massimo Busuoli, the project coordinator from the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment (ENEA). 'Animation and simulation will help to ensure that developments are, at all stages, grounded in the realities of social and health care, the cultures and economies of the specific pilot contexts, and as wide a range as possible of other European public service contexts,' he added. Once developed, the system will be tested in two different locations. The first will be in Italy with a group of 100 elderly people, including 10 suffering from heart diseases, and the second in the Czech Republic with a group of 10 diabetic patients. The two year EU-funded project hopes to finish with an easily configurable system which could seriously ease the burden on an increasingly unsustainable European welfare model.