ITEE Innovation Expo 2008 : Project Details

Smart house design to support aging in place

The world is now experiencing a “population aging” phenomena where it is inhabited by an ever increasing proportion of older people while the younger population is declining. Currently at its biggest percentage ever, by the year 2050 in more developed countries, the proportion of older people in the population is forecasted to double to form 30%. Meanwhile, the number of younger people – those between 15 and 60 years old – will fall by 10% to 50%. Having this fact in mind, the institutionalization of elderly people is not feasible due to the lower, and declining, number of younger people to look after them. Instead, society should explore how to support them aging in place – prolonging their independent stay in their own house as long as they could. This project is about designing an assisted-living technology as part of smart house design to foster aging in place, focusing on a design that leverages the social contact of the elders. Derived from a user study involving ethnographic observation, cultural probes, and interviews, the “Thinking of You” device is proposed. This touch screen device enables older people in just one touch to notify their family/friends they think of by sending a “Thinking of You” message directly to their mobile phones. It will trigger family/friends to make contact with the elders. If this messaging feature is not in use, the device acts as a digital family portraits device. Evaluation of this device is being conducted by deploying it into elderly people’s houses over several weeks.