Project: Fostering Social Interactions for a Better Life of the Elderly

Acronym	FoSIBLE (Reference Number: aal-2009-2-135)
Duration	01/05/2010 - 01/05/2013
Project Topic	Ageing in place is increasingly emphasised as a preferable alternative to institutional care. Although approaches of building-up support structures and social capital in neighbourhoods for elder citizens are pivotal for their daily conduct of life, social interactions beyond the near environment seem to be equally important, e.g. with remotely living family members and friends. The diversity of needs and preferences of social interactions given the varying surrounding social, historically-grown circumstances even amplifies seen from a European stance in the context of different nations. This clearly points to an opportunity for technological solutions to support independent living and social interactions from a “diversity of life worlds” perspective. Therefore the mission of the FoSIBLE project is twofold: (1) The development of an innovative social media platform which opens up the homes of elder people into an innovative social interaction space which is to access, to use and to control intuitively for people being not familiar with new media. (2) The development of innovative methodologies for user-centered and practice-based ICT design to successfully address the needs of the European ageing society in relation to social interaction, social inclusion, and social support. The integration of Smart Home and Living Lab research and development practice as well as the deep integration of primary, secondary and tertiary end users will be the fundamental basis. The involvement of partners from France, Germany and the Netherlands guarantees a comprehension of a wide broadband of backgrounds of end users. The centre of the research is a TV-based Social Media Center which enables new ways of communication and social interaction in the context of the television infrastructure, using entertainment consoles, media center technologies and innovative I/O-devices, such as intelligent furniture.
Website	visit project website
Network	AAL
Call	Call 2 – SOCIAL INTERACTION

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
	AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH		Austria
	Center for Usability Research & Engineering		Austria
	Centre de Prévention AGIRC-ARCCO		France
	Fraunhofer Institute of Microelectronic Circuits and Systems		Germany
	Kaasa solution GmbH		Germany
	Mauser Einrichtungssysteme GmbH & Co. KG		Germany
	Noldus Information Technology BV		Netherlands
	University of Duisburg-Essen		Germany
	University of Siegen		Germany
	University of Technology of Troyes		France
	University of Twente		Netherlands