AAL-Pilot Concepts in Carinthia and Styria

Kurt Majcen

, Johanna Plattner

, Daniela Elisabeth Ströckl

, Kerstin Löffler

, Eva Schuster

Pierre Schaschl

, Daniela Krainer

and Johannes Oberzaucher

Institute for Information and Communication Technologies, JOANNEUM RESEARCH, Graz, Austria

Institute for Applied Research on Ageing, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Villach, Austria

Albert Schweitzer Institute for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Geriatric Health Care Centres Graz, Graz, Austria

Sozialverein Deutschlandsberg, Deutschlandsberg, Austria

Ilogs Mobile Software GmbH, Klagenfurt, Austria

kerstin.loeffler@stadt.graz.at, e.schuster@sozialverein-deutschlandsberg.at, pierre.schaschl@ilogs.com

Keywords: AAL, Active and Assisted Living, Pilot Region, Support System, Smart Home.

Abstract: Seven pilot region projects for developing and evaluating Active and Assisted Living technologies are

implemented in Austria until 2019. Two of them (RegionAAL in Styria and Smart VitAALity in Carinthia)

are introduced in this paper according to their realization, implementation and evaluation concepts. The first

results and perceptions of these pilot regions are also described.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Related Work: AAL Regions in

Austria

Demographic development and its consequences has

been a well-known topic for more than a decade now

and various initiatives take place on (inter-)national

level in Europe focused on related opportunities and

challenges. These are known as research funding

programs about active ageing and healthy living

(AHA) and the Active and Assisted Living Joint-

Program (AAL) which has published 11 calls

since

2008. More than 150 transnational innovation

projects were funded. Different areas of daily life

were handled in this programme in the years 2008 to

2013, for developing ICT based solutions for e.g.

 the management and Prevention of chronic

conditions of older adults

 advancement of social interaction of elderly people

 advancement of Older Persons’ Independence and

Participation in the “Self-Serve Society”

 advancement of Older Persons’ Mobility

Previous calls of AAL-JP - www.aal-europe.eu/stay-up-

to-date/calls (08.03.2019)

gAALaxy website - www.gaalaxy.eu (08.03.2019)

Website of fearless (the intelligent fall sensor) -

www.cogvis.at/fearless.html?lang=en (08.03.2019)

 (self-) management of Daily Life Activities of

Older Adults at Home

 supporting Occupation in Life of Older Adults

Since 2014 the calls of the AAL Joint Programme

were defined more open to foster a broader variety of

proposals submitted:

 care for the future

 living actively and independently at home

 living well with dementia

 integrated Package of Solutions

 smart Solutions for Ageing well

gAALaxy

is an international pilot region in Austria

(North Tyrol), Belgium (Flandern) and Italy (South

Tyrol) that provides a bundle of AAL technology

(e.g. fearless fall detection sensor

or the Smart Home

Austria

bundle for light and energy consumption

control) with intelligent services behind. It is funded

by the AAL Joint Programme initiative (call 2015).

The project lasts from Mai 2016 to October 2018 with

a field trial of twelve months separated into two

phases with overall 150-180 participants.

In Austria the program benefit

has been operated

over nearly the same period of time with rather open

calls and AAL test regions were included in the

Website of Smart Home Austria - www.smarthome-

austria.at (08.03.2019)

FFG benefit website - www.ffg.at/benefit (08.03.2019)

Majcen, K., Plattner, J., Ströckl, D., Löfﬂer, K., Schuster, E., Schaschl, P., Krainer, D. and Oberzaucher, J.

AAL-Pilot Concepts in Carinthia and Styria.

DOI: 10.5220/0007747702890296

In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health (ICT4AWE 2019), pages 289-296

ISBN: 978-989-758-368-1

289

annual calls since 2012. So far seven test regions were

started and three did already finish in this time period.

The regions RegionAAL and Smart VitAALity are

both aiming towards an independent and healthy life

for the primary users. Both regions are using

integrated mobile technologies like tablets and

smartwatches in combination with user-oriented

services. Nevertheless differences exist in the

settings, products used and services offered as

compared in this paper.

Table 1: Overview on Austrian AAL pilot regions,

enhanced from (Ates et al. 2017).

Duration

Location

Household

s/persons

moduLAAr

09/2012-

12/2015

Burgenland

West-AAL

Error!

Reference source

not found.

01/2014-

05/2017

Tyrol and

Vorarlberg

ZentrAAL

01/2015-

12/2017

Salzburg

60+60 *

RegionAAL

09/2015-

09/2018

Styria

100+100 *

WAALTeR

12/2016-

11/2019

Vienna

83+35 *

Smart VitAALity

01/2017-

12/2019

Carinthia

100+100 *

fit4AAL

01/2018-

12/2020

Vienna and

Salzburg

planned

100 + 100*

* Intervention + control group

1.2 Project RegionAAL

In 2013, Styria accounted about 13% of long term

nursing home residents whose care needs were only

between levels 0 (no need for care) and 2 (moderate

need for care) out of 7. Therefore, other factors than

the actual care need may have caused these people

entering a nursing home. This means that with a total

number of around 11,200 nursing home residents at

that time, about 1,450 could have been provided

elsewhere with the use of suitable assistance. (Health-

Joanneum Research, 2015)

Very common reasons for avoidable admissions

in nursing homes are loneliness, social isolation, and

low self-responsibility for health-sustaining

behaviour reflecting the state of knowledge of the

office for Science and Health of the Styrian

Provincial Government. But there are other reasons

Website moduLAAr - www.modulaar.at (18.1.2019)

Website West-AAL - www.west-aal.at (18.1.2019)

Website ZentrAAL - www.zentraal.at (18.1.2019)

Website RegionAAL - www.regionaal.at (18.1.2019)

as well and the cooperative AAL research project

RegionAAL researches which kind of assistance

(technology and services) may reduce the number of

persons entering nursing home for care levels 0 to 4.

An initial analysis on evidence of efficacy and

acceptance of technology assistance defined the basis

within the project for a services and technologies

package combining different existing technologies.

An essential requirement of the package was that it

can be used after the project. The package was tested

in a large-scale pilot (110 households, one year test

period, mainly in the urban areas of Graz, Leibnitz

and Deutschlandsberg). The accompanying

evaluation was done as an RCT with same sized

intervention and control groups.

The major aims of RegionAAL are twofold: on one

hand people shall be assisted by technology and

services to be able to stay longer at home and on the

other hand information on these possibilities shall be

made available to a broader audience.

1.3 Project Smart VitAALity

Smart VitAALity, the Carinthian pilot region for

AAL and Smart Living Technologies, is implemented

as cooperative AAL research project with the aim of

developing and multiperspectively evaluating a

technical solution connected to a subset of integrated

services. The project is implemented in the urban

triangle of Klagenfurt, Villach and Ferlach. The

developed AAL solution is tested and evaluated over

16 months by persons =60-85 years. They should live

independently in their own homes and take an active

part in their own life.

The focus of the system and the accompanying

services was set on two domains affecting the

subjective quality of life (sQoL) of older people:

health and wellbeing, as well as social participation.

Interventions in the area of health and wellbeing

are aiming to improve the health competency of the

users in general and to encourage the usage of digital

health management applications. Interventions in the

area of social participation are dedicated to increase

the general user competence regarding digital

information and communication applications and

services, as well as supporting the users in creating,

maintaining and extending their social networks. The

overall aim is to foster social inclusion, life-long

learning and valuable activity and participation.

Website WAALTeR - www.waalter.wien (18.1.2019)

Website Smart VitAALity - www.smart-vitaality.at

(18.1.2019)

Website fit4AAL - www.fit4aal.at (18.1.2019)

ICT4AWE 2019 - 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health

290

The impact of these interventions on the selected

domains is evaluated in the domains of usage

frequency, technology acceptance and user

experience as well as in defined domains of

subjective quality of life. In order to create an

argumentative basis for anchoring individual

components and services on the market, a socio-

economical potential analysis is performed. The

evaluation is realized as a controlled study including

N=230 households (n=105 in the intervention n=121

in the control group).

2 METHODS

2.1 Project RegionAAL

2.1.1 System Components

The technologies used for the households in the

RegionAAL test phase included: a wireless mobile

door bell, a tablet with a customized user interface

(UI), a smartwatch with fall detection and alert

calls/messages, an automatic sensor based stove shut

down, as well as light assistance with automatic night

light and radio switched light.

Several areas of assistance, like health and wellbeing,

information, communication, entertainment and

safety, were addressed with the components.

All test households in RegionAAL were equipped

with the same components except light assistance

(installed depending on the specific needs of a person

and the room situation in the household).

Tablet: The functions (interventions in our study

context) on the tablet included: vital data at a glance,

reminders (e.g. medication), training videos,

emergency calls, calendar and daily agenda, (video)

phone calls, photos and games.

The functions on the tablet were offered via a

commercially available system (customizable UI in

kiosk mode and apps). Further necessary apps were

added and the standard UI of the base system adopted.

The setup was done during technology preparation in

close cooperation with older adults and assisting staff

from the care organizations in RegionAAL.

A Samsung tablet was equipped with a rubber case

for better handling and a magnetic charge adapter for

easier use than the standard micro-USB interface.

Smartwatch: The smartwatch provided beside the

obvious date/time functionality a fitness tracker with

step counter, various reminders (e.g. medication,

App Usage Tracker-https://play.google.com/store/apps/d

etails?id=com.agrvaibhav.AppUsageTracking(08.03.2019)

drinking, events etc.) and a fall detection with alerting

calls.

Recherché and tests on available fall detection

apps for mobile devices showed that there exists a

huge number of such apps, but none of them was

practical for RegionAAL due to several reasons: not

working (properly), only available in English

language and thus not understandable, including lots

of advertising or optimized for smartphone displays.

Joanneum Research developed an app for that

purpose.

The smartwatch offers full phone and internet

functionality. Both tablet and smartwatch were

equipped with a SIM card (different phone numbers).

2.1.2 Integrated Services

In order to keep the seniors interested, a telephone

hotline with a personal contact person has proven

itself. Problems were taken care of quickly and the

elderly people did not feel left alone in using the

applications. The telephone centre was manned

weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in order to answer

customer calls. For technical problems concerning the

stove shutdown or the individual light solutions, a

hotline was permanently manned by employees of the

project partner “Elektrotechnik Resch”.

Monthly meetings for the participants helped to

maintain motivation in using the application and

learning how to use the technologies. The seniors had

the opportunity to learn the use piece by piece.

Together they repeated the applications regularly. In

addition, the regular meetings allowed showing the

older people the relevance of the technologies for

their personal situation (i.e. which of my everyday

problems can be solved by the technology).

2.1.3 Usage Analysis

Within the evaluation of RegionAAL interest was laid

on the usage of interventions (i.e. apps) on the tablet.

For the smartwatch the interest was on the falls,

which were detected.

For tracking the handling with apps, the app “App

Usage Tracker”

was installed and the appropriate

log files were transferred from each device for

evaluation purposes. The tracking was only done on

application level, i.e. telling about the date/time of

starting the app and the estimated duration of

particular uses. No details were acquired on how the

apps were used or what was entered when using the

apps. The app for fall detection on the smartwatch is

AAL-Pilot Concepts in Carinthia and Styria

291

a constantly running application. The tracking of falls

and if consequential emergency calls were

deactivated by the user, was done directly in the app

included date/time and type of occurring events.

Regarding the use of tablet-based applications and

their acceptance, the participants filled a paper-based

survey. The control group documented the falls,

detected with the smartwatch, in a paper-based form.

2.2 Project Smart VitAALity

2.2.1 System Components

In addition to the interaction ace components (tablet

and smartwatch), the Smart VitAALity system

contains hardware components like environmental

sensors and vital parameter measurement devices etc.

In the course of this paper we set a focus on the

devices with self-implemented software and human-

system interaction, namely the tablet and smartwatch

devices.

Tablet: In the project an off-the-shelf Samsung tablet

equipped with a rubber case.

The tablet offers open usage, which means there is no

kiosk mode that restricts the user to one application.

This evokes the risk that users may accidentally

change settings or crash the tablet, but supports one

important aim of the project: to enhance the media

competency of the users. Additionally, a first level

support hotline process was established to accompany

the users, if assistance with the tablet or other

components is needed. On the tablet, the users have

the opportunity to use the Smart VitAALity app with

the three main functionality clusters: health,

information and communication, which are related to

the described sQoL domains health and social

participation.

“Health” includes a vital parameter tele-monitoring

component for self-visualizing blood pressure, blood

sugar level and body weight, a diary function to rate

the personal wellbeing and take notes, a self-

organized medication reminder and a visualization of

distinct activity levels, based on the fusion of step

counter of the smartwatch and the environmental

sensor data.

“Information” covers content and apps providing

regional information like drugstore opening hours,

medical services during weekends, appointments for

garbage removals, information about regional events

and a personal calendar including moon and pollen

information.

G-Mail - www.google.com/gmail (08.03.2019)

WhatsApp - www.whatsapp.com (08.03.2019)

“Communication” comprises functionalities like e-

mails

, WhatsApp

and FragNebenan

, which is a

digital neighbourly help.

Smartwatch: The smartwatch realizes its own

connectivity to the internet that it can be used

everywhere and independently of other devices. Key

functionalities are comprised of a simple watch

functionality, a step counter and an emergency call

function with an optional call centre (with a 24/7

accessibility). Additionally, a calendar function is

included on the watch, which interacts with the

tablet’s calendar.

2.2.2 Integrated Services

The proposed technical system is planned and

integrated together with accompanying services. In

case of Smart VitAALity the following integrated

services are available: A tele-monitoring component

was implemented in the form of a medical care centre

including a multilevel health coach approach. Beside

regular feedback and contact sessions, according to

an escalation strategy depending on the individual

vital parameter curve, a medical expert provides

support for the users by phone.

The smartwatch is the interface to the integrated

emergency call service including a self-defined

emergency chain with personal emergency contacts,

an option for a professional 24/7 emergency call

centre. If an emergency is signalized via smartwatch,

the emergency call chain is started and the contacts

receive an automated call and have the possibility to

call back. Additionally, a message with position data

and access to the associated web portal is

communicated.

An additional service during the project is a technical

support hotline, where the users can communicate

arising questions and problems regarding the system.

The hotline is available for the participants on each

working day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The intention of this service is to stay in contact with

the users during the test phase and encourage

continuous usage of the system by bridging usage

barriers on the one hand and to gain feedback about

the system status in real time to ensure a fast reaction

to technical problems.

2.2.3 Usage Analysis

The usage of the tablet computer and the smartwatch

is tracked in two different ways.

FragNebenan - www.fragnebenan.com (08.03.2019)

ICT4AWE 2019 - 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health

292

For the usage of the Smart VitAALity app on the tablet

computer the software Matomo

is used in

combination with project internal analysis tools. It is

installed on the tablet computer and tracks every button

tap in the application. The usage of the applications

outside the Smart VitAALity app is not tracked

according to privacy guidelines. However, at the end

of the field trial, a short survey will be realized to

gather the relevant information concerning the usage

related to these applications (how often are other apps

used, which kind of apps are used, are users able to use

the tablet computer independently, etc.).

The usage of the smartwatch is tracked by using an

interface which tracks taken steps in combination with

time information (indicates that the watch is worn) and

total number of emergency call triggering.

The evaluation of the usage shows if devices are used,

the total number of usage and any deviations during the

usage according to age and selected influencing

parameters.

3 RESULTS

3.1 Comparison of the Systems

To compare the used technologies in the two pilot

regions the following clusters are used: components –

which hardware is chosen, functions – which

functions/ topics are relevant in the project, handling –

concept of usage and support and implementation –

how many interfaces and their usage.

3.1.1 Components

RegionAAL

Tablet computer

 Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 LTE T585 (enhanced

with a 32 GB memory card for the trainings videos)

 asina software package

 an additional app launcher replacing the asina app

launcher

 several apps in addition to the asina package

Smartwatch

 Finow X3plus (standard android installation)

 self-developed fall detection

Smart VitAALity

Tablet computer

 Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 LTE (2016)

 Tablet is rooted but commercially available as it is

Smartwatch

 Omate S4 / Safemotion

Edition

 Customized software

Matomo - www.matomo.org (08.03.2019)

3.1.2 Functions

RegionAAL

Health and wellbeing

 Vital parameters (blood pressure, blood sugar,

body weight)

 Physical training support via (live) videos

 Active daily routine (Step Counter)

 Medication reminder

Information, communication & entertainment

 Internet, weather

 Event calendar and personal agenda / tasks

 (video) phone, SMS, Photos, Games

Safety

 Fall detection and emergency/assistance calls

Smart VitAALity

Health and wellbeing

 Vital parameter measurement monitoring

(blood pressure, blood sugar, body weight)

 Diary, Active daily routine, medication

reminder

Social Participation

 Drug store opening hours

 Doctors emergency service on weekends

 Event calendar, Newspapers

 Calendar (incl. moon and pollen calendar)

 Garbage removal

 Internet, e-mail, WhatsApp, FragNebenan

3.1.3 Handling

RegionAAL

Tablet

 Kiosk mode and no possibility for adding apps

Smartwatch

 Open access to watch faces and all functionalities

which could not be deactivated or hidden with

reasonable effort

Support

 For all devices tested in this test region, a support

hotline existed for the users. (Mo-Fr from 8 a.m. to

4 p.m.) If necessary, a technician drove to the user

to help locally.

Smart VitAALity

Tablet

 Open access to all functionalities

Smartwatch

 Controlled access to the watch functionalities –

according the pre-defined use cases

Support

 For both devices as well as the not mentioned other

devices, a support hotline is available (Mo-Fr from

8 a.m. to 4 p.m.). If necessary, a technician will

drive to the user and helps locally.

Safemotion - www.safemotion.org (08.03.2019)

AAL-Pilot Concepts in Carinthia and Styria

293

3.1.4 Implementation

RegionAAL

Tablet

 use of selected asina

platform apps according to

the user requirements

 use of the web based asina backend for

maintenance of asina clients on the tablets

 replacement of the asina app launcher with the

more flexible Apex launcher

with UI designed

and layouted as defined together with potential

participants and staff members of involved care

organizations

 use of app “App Usage Tracker” for tracking use of

user apps and integration of several 3

party user

apps according to the user requirements

 implementation of a web based information portal

based on WordPress content management system

Smartwatch

 standard Android installation with unnecessary

apps deactivated and hidden as good as possible

with reasonable effort

 implementation of the fall detection and alarming

app including logging facilities for detected events

Smart VitAALity

Tablet

 Self-implemented application based on James

application

from ilogs – changes in

customization: pre-installed Smart VitAALity app

and update function app “ilogs Agent”.

 Barrier free design approach – users can change

font size, and colour schema (night mode, high

contrast mode)

 Human-system interface design / navigation

strategy based on requirement analysis

 Interface to the ilogs backend: for updates and

support and to synchronize the tablet computer

smartwatch

 Interface to the ilogs care centre: for logging vital

parameter measurement values and for the care

centre support

 Interface to the Carinthia University of Applied

Science (CUAS) / FIWARE server

: for logging

the usage with Matomo

Smartwatch

 Customized Android version for the Smart

VitAALity app

 Restriction of the commercially available

functionalities

 Interface to the ilogs backend: for support and

receiving relevant information according the

emergency calls and step counter logging

asina package - www.asina.de (08.03.2019)

Apex Launcher -

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.and

does.launcher&hl=en (08.03.2019)

3.2 Results of the Usage Analysis

While the RegionAAL participants liked the tablet

(with all software and additional hardware for easing

use), a great majority disliked the smartwatch. The

major issue with that device was the short battery

lifetime according to the rather energy consuming

application set (phone and internet services with lots

of re-connecting, GPS location and the fall detection)

on that device. The participants using the watch and

others showed great interest in the fall detection and

announced the importance of such a feature.

Smartwatch users among the participants also

experimented with other apps and the available watch

faces, but mentioned that the use of this technology is

harder than the tablet use, due to smaller sizes of

buttons, navigation and UI elements.

The use of the tablet varied between participants from

nearly no use up to about 500 hours over the whole

test period. A first analysis of app usage on the tablets

showed that information (internet access via a web

browser, 54%) and the installed games (mainly

Sudoku and 2048, 36%) were the most frequently

used applications, followed by communication (5%).

Some apps created interest but were obviously not

easy to use, as said in interviews with participants.

Video telephone (skype was integrated into the

platform and contacts maintained by persons

supporting the participants) is an example for that.

About 30% of test users kept the tablet after the

project for private use. However, the seniors wanted

to have a standard UI rather than the customized UI

in kiosk mode to use the tablet just like their children

and grandchildren do.

In Smart VitAALity the usage analysis is not yet

finalized. An interim evaluation showed that more

than 50% of the user group uses the tablet more than

3 times a day, mainly for the health functionalities

like the monitoring component for blood pressure,

blood sugar or body weight parameters. The users,

who also wear the smartwatch every day (33%),

heavily frequent also the step counter-monitoring

component on the tablet. About two third of the users

wear the smartwatch more than three times a week,

mainly for outdoor activities.

Other functionalities on the tablet like FragNebenan

are predominantly used by experienced users,

because the handling is different to the self-

implemented functions like the health functionalities

and therefore difficult for non-experienced users.

WordPress - www.wordpress.org (08.03.2019)

James by ilogs - www.freedomjames.com (08.03.2019)

FIWARE - www.fiware.org (08.03.2019)

ICT4AWE 2019 - 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health

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3.3 Support Effort

A crucial service for enjoying the use of AAL

technologies for the seniors is a good introduction and

support in the application. This can be either a

telephone hotline or regular personal meetings.

Supporting the elderly people in using the AAL-

technologies is time consuming and often

underestimated. Offering a good introduction into the

technologies can take up to 400 hours (for 30 people).

The regular support through hotlines and meetings for

a one-year-period requires up to 1500 hours (for 30

people). However, the effort of support significantly

decreases over time.

In the Smart VitAALity project, the rollout phase was

organized very user-focused with a comprehensive

introduction to the system to minimize usage barriers.

About 530 hours were spent to rollout the Smart

VitAALity system to all test group participants (travel

times not included). Additionally, in the first eight

months of the field trial more than 200 support trips

including enhanced training sessions,

replacement/reparation of defective devices, battery

changes and supply of disposables were made.

4 DISCUSSION

The two test regions took different approaches

regarding the mobile technologies, which they

offered to participants, namely tablet and smartwatch.

4.1 Open vs Locked UI on the Tablet

Having the tablets in RegionAAL run in kiosk mode

with a fixed set of apps was strongly motivated by

offering a mostly identical set of interventions to all

participants as defined in the study protocol. Several

interventions were provided as particular apps and it

was the intention to test and evaluate their efficacy

but not the dis-/advantages of apps. Another aspect

was the risk of a higher supporting effort with an open

system. The project team was not able to take that risk

with the rather large number of participants and as

there were no mechanisms for remote maintenance

included. Still some updates were to be performed on

the systems by staff of technical partners and the

caring organisations.

As part of the RegionAAL exit strategy after the test

phase participants could keep their tablets. Many of

them decided to have the tablet reset without a kiosk

mode and with standard apps (e.g. WhatsApp, Email),

to be more flexible with offered functionality (e.g.

contact management or sending/deleting photos and

videos).

The decision to provide an open tablet access for the

Smart VitAALity users was made with the intention

to create responsible and empowered users regarding

the usage of information and communication

technologies in general and not only for the provided

application. The prior experience of the user group

regarding mobile communication tools such as tablets

or smartphones was also very diverse and therefore

the chosen approach provides also more experienced

users the chance to enhance their competencies. The

advantage of the open approach lies in the acceptance

and the usage of the provided system, but it is also

very hard to monitor the usage of some of the

provided interventions because they can also be

reached from outside the project related app. Also the

maintenance of the system can be a problem because

the system settings can be reached by the users, but in

Smart VitAALity no significant amount of support

activities was related to such issues.

Beside the important health monitoring functions,

WhatsApp exposed to be a trigger function for the

usage of the Smart VitAALity tablet. People with a

too old smartphone or without any WIFI connection

on their phones noted during the requirements

analysis that they want to have a WhatsApp

connection. The importance belongs to the fact, that

children and grandchildren are using this application

for digital communication, and they want to

participate in that process. According to spoken

feedback, these people are very happy for that and

now they feel as a part of the community (again).

Even the complex user interface is not a border for the

usage of WhatsApp whether they have a hard time

dealing with the app functionalities or not. The

personal requirement to be part of the digital “family

and friends”- communication prevails over personal

fears or discomforts of interacting with the function.

4.2 Smartwatches

Although the main functionality of the smartwatches

was different (emergency call vs. fall detection), a

step counter on the watch was provided in both

projects. The main intention of this functionality was

to motivate the users to exercise every day. In course

of both projects some issues with the synchronization

of counted steps between watch and tablet occurred

(some steps were lost) and many users complained

about these issues. This shows that such fitness

functionalities would be well accepted by the users,

but only if they work out accurately and correctly.

Therefore, there is a need to catch up with the state of

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the art of already existing fitness trackers and to

include these functionalities into the used

smartwatches to create an added value for the users.

The fall detection was mentioned as a very useful and

important feature for feeling safe. Both participants

and supporting persons or family members reported

this.

5 CONCLUSION

A central element of the development of AAL

technologies is the active involvement of the target

group. A user-centred design throughout the whole

project ensures that the solution is oriented towards

the needs of the target group. Frequent feedback loops

and constant contact with the target group are central

components. Our experience shows that seniors are

happy to participate and appreciate it when they are

involved in such developments.

Another important point is to provide easy accessible

contact points and services for the users also during

the field trial. Experiences show, that personal

contact, assistance as well as and taking into account

the feedback of the users (especially regarding

problems, failures or struggles) is a crucial point in

determining success or failure of an AAL solution.

Furthermore, taking users seriously also strengthens

their self-confidence and consequently also their

competence in dealing with technical solutions.

Developments in the AAL area should definitely take

into account a design-for-all approach. Using tablets

with standard UI works pretty well (except text entry)

with older adults and are then very well accepted.

Supporting effort is not that huge, if users are well

trained at introduction time. Technologies have to be

developed for certain use cases but not for “old

people” per se. This prevents stigmatization and

opens up new potential in the fields of AAL.

Smartwatches are of great interest alos to older adults

and would be accepted, if some shortcomings (e.g.

breaking wrist bands, short battery runtime,

incomprehensible shutdown and reset to factory

settings) can be solved. Therefore developments and

improvements of this technology shall be followed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The project RegionAAL (grant no. 850810) is

partially funded in the program benefit by the

Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and the

Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and

Technology (bmvit). We also thank the consortium

partners PWH Kirschallee GmbH, Resch

Elektrotechnik GmbH and the trial participants.

The pilot region Smart VitAALity (grant no. 858380)

is supported in the framework of the FFG program

benefit and co-financed by bmvit. We would also like

to thank the consortium partner Hilfswerk Kärnten,

the associated partner Netzwerk Geriatrie Kärnten,

Verein Lebenswertes Altern in Ferlach and the cities

of Klagenfurt, Villach and Ferlach, as well as the trial

participants.

REFERENCES

Ates N., Aumayr G., Drobics M., Förster K.M.,

Frauenberger C., Garschall M.,…Willner V. Assistive

Solutions in Practice: Experiences from AAL Pilot

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Health Technology and Informatics, Ebook: Volume

236: Health Informatics Meets eHealth, pp 184-195,

2017. DOI 10.3233/978-1-61499-759-7-184.

Health Joanneum Research, 2015. Bedarfs- und

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