AAL Smart Ageing Challenge Prize Finalists – RelaxedCare
AAL Smart Ageing Challenge Prize Finalists – RelaxedCare
RelaxedCare: A cube that cares
New system provides easy way to care and communicate with loved ones in need
Informal caregiving is often a stressful role to take on, but the team behind the RelaxedCare System don’t believe that it has to be. Instead of continuously worrying about a loved one’s wellbeing and constantly checking in, this novel technology aims to connect informal caregivers with assisted persons via an intuitive, user-friendly device to eliminate undue concern.
The RelaxedCare System is about conveying information, allaying fears and connecting users. Sensors in the assisted person’s home calculate their wellbeing state which is displayed as a colour on a cubed device, the main component of the system. Different colours indicate different states. If the informal caregiver wants to know more, they can get detailed info via the app, which is the second component of the system. The third component is a simplified messaging system that lets assisted persons show when they are out, when they’ve safely returned home, or simply that they are thinking about the person at the other end.
Now RelaxedCare has been shortlisted for the first ever Active and Assisted Living (AAL) Challenge Prize, which is awarding €50,000 for the best product or idea that uses internet connectivity and the Internet of Things (IoT) to empower older adults to achieve the quality of life to which they aspire, socially and independently.
15 entrants from a healthy total of 200 have now been shortlisted for the prize and these finalists will now attend a special Innovation Academy in Brussels in July, where their ideas will be further scrutinised by the judges and where they will also receive advice on how their ideas can be further commercialised for what is a massively growing market.
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Karin Weiss, Deputy Managing Director and Head of Grants at the AGE Foundation and one of the competition judges, said: “We were delighted by the variety of entries we received. We saw many interesting solutions and were particularly impressed by the approach taken to bridging the gap between the older and younger generations, as well as the approach to stabilising the quality of life at home for older people.
“The challenge now is to identify a winner that is exciting, commercially viable and close to the edge of the market,” she adds. “We want to see the prize being used to connect this potential with investors, refining the prototypes and creating impetus to get the solution to market.”
A huge amount of work is being done in the Austria in the sector and, with people like the designers behind RelaxedsCare already engaged in developing solutions designed to increase the quality of life for older people, hopes are high that this simple, smart solution will pick up the top prize when it is announced at the AAL Forum, being held at St Gallen, Switzerland, in September.
Click here for more information about RelaxedCare or email martin.morandell@ait.ac.at
For more information about the AAL and the AAL Forum, visit: https://www.aalforum.eu/