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EIT ICT Labs is in collaboration with ITEA and we would therefor like to distribute the following article from the ITEA magazin 04/2012. The whole magazin can is available for download: www.itea2.org/itea_2_magazines

Guarantee at Luxinnovation workshop

The rights and obligations for care of the young, elderly and sick are a foundation of society that creates a bond between humans. Our challenge is how to create environments that give care, yet balance the rights and obligations between those roles in society as we age and our society ages. It is also a challenge to use the capital we have invested in homes to avoid taxing the environment too greatly. In giving care, the need to provide immediate aid in case of emergencies is socially as important as care for the chronically sick. 

A ‘smart homes’ workshop was organised by the partners in the ITEA 2 Guarantee project on 18 January at Luxinnovation in Luxembourg. The objective was to demonstrate and discuss innovation in the future smart home to understand ‘Alarming at Home’. Alarm Systems in and around the home based on the Internet of Things promise to aid people in acute need quickly and help avoid accidents around the home.

The workshop was an excellent chance for healthcare professionals and policy makers in Luxembourg to see how innovation in the Internet can help people vulnerable to incidents around the home. Illustrating how the EUREKA project can link the forces for innovation in society, such as small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs), to the common good. Offering the full value of the Internet to society creates better lives for all.

Guarantee and EIT testbed

ITEA Chairman Rudolf Haggenmüller said at the 2011 Co-summit in Helsinki that “EIT ICT Labs can strengthen the business impact of ITEA and speed up the exploitation of research results”. The Guarantee ITEA 2 project was the first in line to seek the advantage of the accelerated growth that the EIT will ensure. Both Philips and VTT worked together as part of the EIT ICT centres’ activities in Eindhoven and Helsinki to drive forward the EIT testbed to refine those technologies with the greatest appeal for consumer-driven innovations for homecare. “Tremendous impact,” says Guarantee project leader Keith Baker of Philips. “Our insights into the market’s role of smart lighting and use of robotics in simple and effective concepts to enhance the design of safety for the elderly at home. Multiplying the value of our demonstrators to the project’s SMEs many times was a key outcome of the EIT contribution to our project in 2011.” Julia Kantorovitch of VTT Finland thought: “EIT health and wellness testbed taught the partners to focus on human-scale issues, the modest, more practical robotic enhancement to everyday devices that will help care for the elderly with a clear value to family.” While Jean Gelissen of Philips firmly believes: “The EIT ICT Labs catalysts help transform ITEA 2 project results into meaningful validated business propositions”.

For more information:
www.guarantee-itea2.org
www.itea2.org/project/index/view/?project=1140

 

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