In 2017, a first living lab was set up. The aim of the AALiving Lab@home project was to assess the actual needs of senior citizens with respect to assistance systems and to test a technical-assistance system.

More than 20 private households were able to be recruited, 15 of which then tested a technical-assistance system in the actual home environment for a period of three months. The average age of the project participants was 75 (age range of between 66 and 88). Seven participants were women and eight were men. Seven persons lived alone in a household; half of the households were located in a rural area. During the recruitment process, it became apparent that it is difficult to approach more fragile or vulnerable population groups and ask them to participate in a real-world test involving their everyday life at home.

The needs assessment conducted in advance showed that test subjects, most of whom were still very active and healthy, currently had little need for technical assistance in their day-to-day. One problem that was mentioned was the fact that while a great number of technology options are available, an overview of them is lacking.

A variety of sensors were tested, all of which connected wirelessly to a control centre. The tests showed that the individual components did not work flawlessly. There were several false alarms, and the programmed reminder functions were not always reliable. The test subjects also criticised the fact that the various sensors require different batteries, and that the messages do not remain on the control centre screen long enough to be confirmed. Further analyses are currently ongoing.