Final Report Summary - KINOPTIM (KINOPTIM: An ICT solution for the implementation of an innovating fall prevention and holistic management service for the elderly community)
Falls are prominent among the causes of unintentional injury, particularly for the elderly. According to WHO, 28-35% of people aged of sixty five (65) and above fall each year increasing to 32-42% for those over seventy (70).
ICT is an excellent tool for addressing the situation briefly sketched above therefore KINOPTIM developed, integrated and piloted an infrastructure for the implementation of a comprehensive fall prevention and holistic management service by means of innovative use of technology. This home-care solution addresses older people living in the community in a preventative manner and rely on ICT and virtual reality gaming through the exploitation of haptic technologies, vision control and context awareness methods. A dedicated programme of service process innovation complemented by adapting existing technology was pursued, thereby following an iterative and needs-driven approach which has been proven highly effective and efficient in comparable service development context. The foreseen qualities of KINOPTIM are its affordability both in term of cost and human factors as well as its accuracy to assess indicators of fall risk level both for diagnosis and rehabilitation/training strategy orientation.
The KINOPTIM platform and service implemented a life-course approach in order to help people adopt healthier behaviour earlier in life and adapt to age-associated changes. It redefined fall prevention by motivating people to be more active, in a friendly way and with tele-supervision if necessary. By covering the entire value-chain (academics: National Technical University of Athens, University of Orleans, University of Barcelona; Industry: Singular Logic, BRAINSTORM, StreamVision), KINOPTIM created a win-win situation between the academic and private sector hence enhancing the competitiveness of Europe in the bioengineering and healthcare domain.
The Scientific and Technology (S&T) objective of KINOPTIM was to develop, integrate and pilot an infrastructure for the implementation of a comprehensive and holistic fall management service by means of innovative usage of technologies.
Thereby, it relies on ICT and virtual reality gaming throughout the exploitation of haptic technologies and vision control and address older people living in the community, both in a preventative (falls prevention) and reactive manner (detection safety and independent living support). It redefines fall prevention by motivating people to exercise more, in a friendly manner and with a tele-supervision when necessary. To this end, a dedicated programme of service process innovation complemented by adapting existing technology was pursued, thereby following an iterative and needs-driven approach which has proved highly effective and efficient in comparable service development context.
The main qualities of KINOPTIM are:
• Its affordability both in term of cost and human factors
• Its accuracy to assess indicators of fall risk level both for diagnosis and rehabilitation/training strategy orientation.
The KINOPTIM platform and service has fulfilled all S&T objectives thus it has implemented a life-course approach in order to help people adopt healthier behaviour earlier in life and adapt to age- associated changes.
The KINOPTIM pilot experiment at “La Maison Felippa” makes possible a complete evaluation and validation of the proposed system. Thanks to the different scores obtained from the KINOPTIM system, the questionnaires, the interviews, and the evaluation metrics, a validation of the overall system has been carried out.
The elderly involved in the pilot experiment found very satisfactory the KINOPTIM system and the health professionals at the day care center found the system useful and valuable during the physical activities of the elderly. The seniors were very interested in testing a prototype dealing with the fall prevention. They have appreciated to have a real-time feedback on what they were performing. It created a real motivation to better perform the exercises. The experiment only lasted 2 months and the end-users have suggested several directions of improvement of the KINOPTIM system: a vocal guide, a better color distinction, a more detailed and explicit visualization of the desired postures.
The KINOPTIM project has a beneficial impact from different points of view. From an organizational point of view, the storage of the exergame data makes easy the follow up of the elderly’s rehabilitation program. From a technological point of view, visual and depth sensors make possible a real-time visualization of the elderly silhouette that improves the engagement of the elderly by a better feedback on the exergame.
From a socio-economic impact, the KINOPTIM system will surely be a cost-effective solution for fall prevention, especially when the system will be a commercial product and not just a prototype. It is worth mentioning that the average costs for the healthcare system in EU per person are 3.880 euros in the 65-70 years age group, increasing to 14.600 euros for people over 85 years old. Taking into account the aging of EU population falls will significantly affect the health policy and the fall prevention systems will become more and more important in the next future.
ICT is an excellent tool for addressing the situation briefly sketched above therefore KINOPTIM developed, integrated and piloted an infrastructure for the implementation of a comprehensive fall prevention and holistic management service by means of innovative use of technology. This home-care solution addresses older people living in the community in a preventative manner and rely on ICT and virtual reality gaming through the exploitation of haptic technologies, vision control and context awareness methods. A dedicated programme of service process innovation complemented by adapting existing technology was pursued, thereby following an iterative and needs-driven approach which has been proven highly effective and efficient in comparable service development context. The foreseen qualities of KINOPTIM are its affordability both in term of cost and human factors as well as its accuracy to assess indicators of fall risk level both for diagnosis and rehabilitation/training strategy orientation.
The KINOPTIM platform and service implemented a life-course approach in order to help people adopt healthier behaviour earlier in life and adapt to age-associated changes. It redefined fall prevention by motivating people to be more active, in a friendly way and with tele-supervision if necessary. By covering the entire value-chain (academics: National Technical University of Athens, University of Orleans, University of Barcelona; Industry: Singular Logic, BRAINSTORM, StreamVision), KINOPTIM created a win-win situation between the academic and private sector hence enhancing the competitiveness of Europe in the bioengineering and healthcare domain.
The Scientific and Technology (S&T) objective of KINOPTIM was to develop, integrate and pilot an infrastructure for the implementation of a comprehensive and holistic fall management service by means of innovative usage of technologies.
Thereby, it relies on ICT and virtual reality gaming throughout the exploitation of haptic technologies and vision control and address older people living in the community, both in a preventative (falls prevention) and reactive manner (detection safety and independent living support). It redefines fall prevention by motivating people to exercise more, in a friendly manner and with a tele-supervision when necessary. To this end, a dedicated programme of service process innovation complemented by adapting existing technology was pursued, thereby following an iterative and needs-driven approach which has proved highly effective and efficient in comparable service development context.
The main qualities of KINOPTIM are:
• Its affordability both in term of cost and human factors
• Its accuracy to assess indicators of fall risk level both for diagnosis and rehabilitation/training strategy orientation.
The KINOPTIM platform and service has fulfilled all S&T objectives thus it has implemented a life-course approach in order to help people adopt healthier behaviour earlier in life and adapt to age- associated changes.
The KINOPTIM pilot experiment at “La Maison Felippa” makes possible a complete evaluation and validation of the proposed system. Thanks to the different scores obtained from the KINOPTIM system, the questionnaires, the interviews, and the evaluation metrics, a validation of the overall system has been carried out.
The elderly involved in the pilot experiment found very satisfactory the KINOPTIM system and the health professionals at the day care center found the system useful and valuable during the physical activities of the elderly. The seniors were very interested in testing a prototype dealing with the fall prevention. They have appreciated to have a real-time feedback on what they were performing. It created a real motivation to better perform the exercises. The experiment only lasted 2 months and the end-users have suggested several directions of improvement of the KINOPTIM system: a vocal guide, a better color distinction, a more detailed and explicit visualization of the desired postures.
The KINOPTIM project has a beneficial impact from different points of view. From an organizational point of view, the storage of the exergame data makes easy the follow up of the elderly’s rehabilitation program. From a technological point of view, visual and depth sensors make possible a real-time visualization of the elderly silhouette that improves the engagement of the elderly by a better feedback on the exergame.
From a socio-economic impact, the KINOPTIM system will surely be a cost-effective solution for fall prevention, especially when the system will be a commercial product and not just a prototype. It is worth mentioning that the average costs for the healthcare system in EU per person are 3.880 euros in the 65-70 years age group, increasing to 14.600 euros for people over 85 years old. Taking into account the aging of EU population falls will significantly affect the health policy and the fall prevention systems will become more and more important in the next future.