Open platforms in the AHA domain

The progress of technology in the field of AAL/AHA (Active Assisted Living/Active and Healthy Ageing) has been possible due to extensive research work in areas like intelligent buildings, telematics, computer vision, robotics, artificial intelligence and so on. An important contribution to these technological advances is also due to the rise of computational power of systems that become increasingly less expensive. Consequently, new technologies will make it possible to increase the autonomy of older adults and enable them to live longer in their preferred environment without decreasing safety and with the care or assistance they need.

Over the past decade, many (open) platforms and solutions have been developed and tested, aimed at using innovative technologies in order to assist older people to live independently in their home environments as long as possible.

One of the first actions that PlatformUptake.eu has performed, is the mapping of the current ecosystem of such open platforms in the active and healthy aging domain, their end-users, and related stakeholders.

The first phase concerned the identification of the most representative platforms in AAL/AHA research in the last 10 years, which ultimately led to a selection of 18 platforms to be part of the ecosystem map. The selection criteria concerned various factors such as, among others, the impact on research in the AAL/AHA sector and the European coverage that have led to prefer platforms that have laid the foundations for the subsequent ones. The analysis focuses mainly on platforms specifically in/for the AAL and AHA application domains; nevertheless, more generic platforms that have AHA among their possible application domains have been included as well.

A glossary was also conceived to meet the need of introducing and describing unambiguously the terminology used in PlatformUptake.eu, with particular attention to the definitions of the platforms and the various types of end-users and stakeholders involved.

This mapping and analysis will obviously drive further work in PlatformUptake.eu and lead to a better understanding of the ecosystem, the successes, and failures, and help to build tools for better uptake of existing platforms.