CONTACTS – Intelligent Assistance for Active Ageing

CONTACTS aims to develop and test an intelligent “Smart Living” system that supports people on the threshold of retirement age not to lose social contacts but to expand them.

This innovative preventive approach should maintain physical and mental well-being in the long term and that mental and physical mobility can be secured for longer and positive effects on health can be achieved. CONTACTS is based on a natural-language conversational interaction concept that regularly exchanges information with users. It analyses the user’s daily questions and preferences and makes appropriate recommendations for activities and behavioural changes. In addition to natural language processing methods, the system also integrates psychometric analyses beyond the state of the art, which are recorded in the familiar living environment of the users. In addition, there is a wide set of sensor data, which includes both the respective user environment and its activities and is incorporated into the overall picture. In particular here, as well as in the overall project, it is always ensured that sensitive data is collected and processed in a responsible manner. The aim is to ensure a setup that is as close to reality as possible and to integrate methods and procedures in new and truly groundbreaking ways. The
system will be tested, evaluated and analysed in a large-scale pilot study in three countries over a period of one year (Germany, Italy and Japan). Due to the geographical, climatic, cultural and economic diversity of these test environments, it can be expected that diverse and practically applicable research results will emerge. The diversity of the project poles (EU/ Japan) in terms of technology acceptance and technology development is an important basis for mutual transfer. A significant part of the project is also the gerontologically clean analysis and monitoring.

REM Consult supported the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW) throughout the project development – from structuring the project idea to managing the future consortium, from composing the application to running project development workshops and is the designated project partner for communication and dissemination.