NACODEAL (NAtural Communication Device for ELderly people)
AAL European project
Today, everybody
agrees that we live in a society increasingly evolving that change faster and
that becomes more dependent of new technologies every day. This evolution
visibly affects in a negative way the feeblest individuals, who are the slowest
to be adapted, and finally became excluded. Among this group of
people, the elders also suffer in most cases the added disadvantage of memory forgetting
daily tasks for no concrete reasons. Elder people who in some cases could become
good technology users, but due to senility or a temporary absentmindedness
could be doomed to a problematic situation that will end up in stress and in
cases isolation.
The idea behind the
NACODEAL project is to provide a new type of easy-to-use Technology tool for
elders to face these problems and keep them connected to today’s Information
Society. NACODEAL will provide guidance service through Augmented Reality
Technologies to enable elders to be self-sufficient despite their memory diseases.
The tangible result of NACODEAL
project will be a portable device in which an Augmented Reality module will be integrated that will create friendly guides
for users to success in performing daily activities and accessing to online
services.
Figure : NACODEAL General scheme
At his home, an
elder person who normally has been able to procure for himself (even with technology
knowledge), suddenly cannot remember how to perform a specific action. Due to a
temporary loss of memory, this person may not remember how to switch on the
television (or prepare food...). In that case, the person consulting the
NACODEAL device will see the instructions with projected Augmented Reality in the
form of how to do it.
The user of the device is up in the morning on time for their agenda. The device begins guiding
you to the closet to dress, depending on the configuration the device can show
a video of the correct order in which they must make garments even guiding the
user and display cabinets and drawers that is each garment. That day, the user must
make a doctor visit, following guide to the kitchen , the
system reminds you that you must go to the doctor and after finishing the
breakfast, the device guides you toward the door and reminds you to take your
health care card and the house keys. The system is based on
the calendar, user habits, time of day and the place where the user is.