Living Lab services promoting health in the community through participation

In the time of urban growth, people should be at the heart of development, too often they are forgotten. However, growth poses also a great possibility. Cities can transform into open innovation Living Labs, places to experiment and co-create with creative ideas to improve people’s health and wellbeing. Open innovation Living Lab is one-step for city towards smart and healthy society. This requires bold political choices, strategic level approach, open-minded governance and new operational models. The City of Kuopio has taken this opportunity into action together with Kuopio University Hospital. Living Lab operates as an authentic co-creation environment to enable collaboration between citizens, industry, academia and public sector (Quadruple Helix Open Innovation model). This was implemented through primary health care services bringing together community and citizens´ homes for co-creation of new solutions, which helps people, live longer in their homes and increase the quality of life. The elderly and their close relatives have been enthusiastically involved in the services. Participation opportunities and the feeling of social cohesion have increased. Critical success factors are support from strategic level, well-coordinated services, governance, a broad customer base and solutions made from the genuine need. Collaboration between all stakeholders has made it possible to provide better products and services that can improve health and wellbeing of the community in all sectors of life. At the same time, it promotes citizens’ participation and supports co-creation of new ideas arising from the community and the growth of healthy city

Include 2011 : The role of inclusive design in making social innovation happen.

Include is the biennial conference held at the RCA and hosted by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. The event is directed by Jo-Anne Bichard and attracts an international delegation

Technology and Caregiving: Emerging Interventions and Directions for Research.

An array of technology-based interventions has increasingly become available to support family caregivers, primarily focusing on health and well-being, social isolation, financial, and psychological support. More recently the emergence of new technologies such as mobile and cloud, robotics, connected sensors, virtual/augmented/mixed reality, voice, and the evermore ubiquitous tools supported by advanced data analytics, coupled with the integration of multiple technologies through platform solutions, have opened a new era of technology-enabled interventions that can empower and support family caregivers. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for identifying and addressing the challenges that may need to be overcome to effectively apply technology-enabled solutions for family caregivers. The paper identifies a number of challenges that either moderate or mediate the full use of technologies for the benefit of caregivers. The challenges include issues related to equity, inclusion, and access; ethical concerns related to privacy and security; political and regulatory factors affecting interoperability and lack of standards; inclusive/human-centric design and issues; and inherent economic and distribution channel difficulties. The paper concludes with a summary of research questions and issues that form a framework for global research priorities

RFID Localisation For Internet Of Things Smart Homes: A Survey

The Internet of Things (IoT) enables numerous business opportunities in fields as diverse as e-health, smart cities, smart homes, among many others. The IoT incorporates multiple long-range, short-range, and personal area wireless networks and technologies into the designs of IoT applications. Localisation in indoor positioning systems plays an important role in the IoT. Location Based IoT applications range from tracking objects and people in real-time, assets management, agriculture, assisted monitoring technologies for healthcare, and smart homes, to name a few. Radio Frequency based systems for indoor positioning such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a key enabler technology for the IoT due to its costeffective, high readability rates, automatic identification and, importantly, its energy efficiency characteristic. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art RFID technologies in IoT Smart Homes applications. It presents several comparable studies of RFID based projects in smart homes and discusses the applications, techniques, algorithms, and challenges of adopting RFID technologies in IoT smart home systems.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, 3 table

Weathering the Nest: Privacy Implications of Home Monitoring for the Aging American Population

The research in this paper will seek to ascertain the extent of personal data entry and collection required to enjoy at least the minimal promised benefits of distributed intelligence and monitoring in the home. Particular attention will be given to the abilities and sensitivities of the population most likely to need these devices, notably the elderly and disabled. The paper will then evaluate whether existing legal limitations on the collection, maintenance, and use of such data are applicable to devices currently in use in the home environment and whether such regulations effectively protect privacy. Finally, given appropriate policy parameters, the paper will offer proposals to effectuate reasonable and practical privacy-protective solutions for developers and consumers

The future of housing and technology in Japan - the Connected Homes Group Study Tour.

-Future housing; future technology; Japan