Over a period of three months, 15 private households of senior citizens participated in home testing of a new technical-assistance system from the area of Active Assisted Living (AAL). Various suggestions for improvements were derived from the test results.

A living lab makes it possible to test technical-assistance systems in the actual everyday home environment of senior citizens over an extended period of time, in contrast to the traditional testing of technical innovations, which takes place in an artificial laboratory situation for a limited period of time. This kind of living lab, whose target group were people aged 65 and above, was set up for the first time in Switzerland as part of the AALiving Lab@home project, which was sponsored by the Gebert Rüf Stiftung foundation.

A total of 15 private households tested a technical-assistance system from the area of sensor technology in their homes for a period of three months. Testing was accompanied from a social-sciences perspective. The focus was on issues of operability, user-friendliness and technical acceptance. Various suggestions for improvements were derived from the test results. For example, the wireless range was insufficient in a home spanning several floors, or the light of the LED cord was felt to be too bright. In terms of technical acceptance, several factors emerged that either promoted or detracted from acceptance. Those that promoted acceptance included clear features, ease of operation, the product’s discernible added value, affordable purchase and maintenance costs, and access to customer service. Factors that detracted from acceptance were highly complex operation, malfunctioning and stigmatisation.

The project advanced the thematic concentration and focus on the topic of AAL at the FHS St.Gallen. As a result, the concept has been further differentiated, and other projects on this topic have been applied for and approved.