GUIDed Assisted-Living and Social Interaction Platform

GUIDed is an R&D-project that has developed services that make existing technological solutions both more relevant and easier to understand and use for older users. The project ended on 31st December 2022. We have added a layer of digital content, so-called AR, augmented reality, in both the user manuals and services. Training of carers in the use of solutions has taken place with the help of AR, and the elderly have received user training in the same way. The experiences with using AR have been good. In the initial phase of use, AR has been used, but the services are not very complicated, so that the need for AR help disappears when the users master the service. The target group 'older users' refers to healthy up-and-coming seniors such as refuses to use technological solutions because lack of experience, or which due to a functional impairment does not have the same opportunities or capacity to make use of technical solutions as everyone else. Types of technology included in the project's target picture are: Meds planner: Medication reminder Navigation: Navigation in cities using AR Home control: Control of smart technology in the home Home security: Security and safety in the home Communication: Simple video-based communication between family and friends At the end of 2021 and 2022, we ran two rounds of longer testing. The first round gave feedback that was implemented before the second round. The second round of testing began in May 2022 and ended in October 2022. The test was carried out with 10 primary users and 10 secondary users in Norway, Poland and Cyprus as well as 5 users from each user group in Austria. A total of 70 people. In addition, we interviewed 7 tertiary users, mainly from the IT industry, about how the GUIDed system could best be commercialized. The user tests have shown differences both in expectations and perceptions of the users in the individual participating countries. Norwegian elderly uses many apps compared to users from the other countries. In Norway, to a greater extent than in the other countries, the users were aware that they were participating in a research project and had greater patience with errors and instability than in the other countries. It seemed that users in the other countries had expectations that the system would work perfectly. Towards the end of the testing, both the services and the underlying infrastructure worked better. Reminders to take medicine were widely used in Norway, and in the other countries. However, conversations with older people showed that many of them use calendar services for such reminders. The navigation in GUIDed worked ok, but Norwegian users prefer e.g. Google navigation. Google has a better developed service and has also come up with AR help in navigation. However, the navigation service seemed fine. While Google mostly navigated along major streets, the GUIDed service could more easily find shortcuts for pedestrians. The home control system we developed in GUIDed was based on Raspberry Pi and zigbee. The system worked well to demonstrate what a smart house can be, remote control of light and heat, but our assessment is that there is a long way to go before the GUIDed service can become a commercial service. The range of devices you could control was too limited and the setup procedure was far from plug and play. Home security, where you get access to various alarms for smoke, gas, doors etc. was little used in Norway because Norwegians buy such services from commercial players. You must operate the GUIDed service yourself, but both in Poland, Austria and Cyprus this service created expectations and was considered useful and an additional security. The communication service worked well, but here too the users replied that there are many other free options such as e.g. Messenger, Duo, Skype and Teams. In June 2022, Karde organized the only physical project meeting in the project after kick off in Cyprus in January 2020. The project was affected by the covid epidemic, both in relation to meetings, everything took place on Skype and Teams, and in relation to the user testing. The project is a collaboration between a total of seven European partners from Cyprus, Norway, Poland and Austria. The project is coordinated by the Materia Group from Nicosia, Cyprus. Karde's tasks were linked to design, usability, testing and evaluation of the system as well as the dissemination of new knowledge from the project. Karde was responsible for a complementary deliverable that summarizes the results of all the tests in GUIDed. Karde has developed the web portal for the GUIDed service. Through participation, we have gained experience and building blocks for renewing the Memas service, as well as good relations with communities in the other participating countries. MedGUIDE is an AAL project with partial funding from the European Commission and the Research Council of Norway. The partners have put in a significant amount of their own effort.

Alle virkninger og effekter som beskrevet i prosjektsøknaden kan anses som mer eller mindre oppfylt. Oppnådde resultater: - En funksjonell, konfigurerbar teknologiplattform og relaterte tjenester. Prosjektet har utviklet et system med en teknologiplattform bestående av to elementer. En web portal for registrering av brukere og konfigurering av brukerinformasjon. En app med 5 tjenesteelementer: 1. Påminnelse om å ta medisin, 2. Navigeringshjelp med AR funksjjonalitet, 3. Smarthuskontroll, 4. Trygghetsalarmer i hjemmet, 5. Enkel videokommunikasjon. - En grundig testet og validert plattform og relaterte tjenester i ulike tjenestekonfigurasjoner og boliginnstillinger, hvor en overveiende del av sluttbrukerne har uttrykt sin tilfredshet med teknologiplattformen, de relaterte tjenestene og brukergrensesnittene. Plattformen er validert og testet gjennom en serie av brukeraktiviteter i alle deltakerlandene. Papirprototyper, labtester og to runder med virkelige tester i testpersoners hjem. Input fra testene er brukt til løpende forbedringer av funksjonalitet og brukergrensenitt. - En læringsfunksjonalitet som hjelper sluttbrukerne til å unngå teknologiavbrudd, minimere teknofobi og muliggjøre brukervennlighet av tjenestene. Opplæring i bruk av app-tjenestene er blitt implementert med AR-funksjonalitet som leder brukerne gjennom app-tjenestene. Brukerundersøkelsene godtgjør til en viss grad at testbrukerne er blitt mer fortrolige med bruk av apper i løpet av den virkelige test. Vi ser også forskjeller mellom land. Norske eldre brukere var mye mer oppegående i bruke av apper enn brukerne fra Kypros, Polen og Østerrike. Virkninger: - Med den modulære tilnærmingen (tilpassbar, fleksibel, utvidbar, skalerbar), være i stand til å møte det brede mangfoldet av behovene til sluttbrukerpopulasjonen og fleksibelt kombinere komponentene med tredjepartsleverandørkomponenter. Rasberry Pi ble brukt for å styre og kontrollere smart utstyr i hjemmet, samt at utsyret var kommersielt tilgjengelige smarte lyspærer (hvitt lys og fargelys), smarte kontakter som kunne slås av og på, røyk- og gassalarmer, dør og vinduslåser. Alt ble styrt og kontrollert av appen som ble utviklet i GUIDed. - Øk eldre voksnes digitale kompetanse gjennom AR/VR-veiledningen. AR-veiledningen, som kunne slås på og av, var nyttig for brukerne i den første perioden av bruken. Etter hvert, når brukerne ble kjent med appene, kunne AR-funksjonen slås av. - Ved å være et lavbudsjettprodukt gjør det mulig for helseeksperter, helse- og hjemmetjenesteorganisasjoner (og deres ansatte) å investere i produktet gjennom en storskala distribusjon. Det gjenstår å se om dette lar seg realisere. For å kunne være til ordentlig hjelp ble det i brukerundersøkelsen foreslått mange andre tjenster som kunne være til hjelp i dagliglivet. En av organsiasjonene i prosjektet, Materia fra Kypros, som også var hovedkontraktør, driver eldreboliger og vil buke GUIDed for sine beboere.

GUIDed addresses the challenge of keeping older adults independent and functioning in their own homes for as long as possible. It offers a selection of smart devices and services integrated in a smart kit based on budget options, while giving heavy emphasis on training the older users on using the service. To achieve this, GUIDed includes an augmented reality tutoring service for users to be guided on how to use the smart kit. Also, it allows users to add new devices and services in the future. In more detail, GUIDed users a modular and customizable smart kit, consisting of assisted-living solutions and services to facilitate seniors' daily lives in their own home and the community. The main target areas of the smart kit are smart home-control features, safety enhancement, outdoor navigation, health improvement and socialisation/communication. The end users will be GUIDed with a tablet-/smartphone-based Augmented Reality (AR) tutoring service to simplify the smart kit use and optimise usability. The smart kit will be created and integrated using a user-centered design methodology, in which end-users are actively involved in all stages of the project through to the business exploitation stage. GUIDed's unique selling proposition is that it offers a selection of smart devices and services integrated in a smart kit based on budget options, and an augmented reality tutoring service. The research challenges of the project are connected to providing an innovative technology solution essentially in the intersection of supporting the ability of older adults to find, choose and combine assistive technology services, as well as promoting their confidence to use a variety of devices to complete daily tasks. The anticipated potential for use of the project findings include the core functionalities that are successfully implemented and integrated in a robust product for the AAL and AT markets, two years after the closure og the project.