eWall for Active Long Living

Independent living of senior citizens is one of the main challenges linked to the ageing population, due to the impact on: (a) the life of the elderly people, (b) the national health systems, (c) the insurance companies, (d) the relatives and (e) the care-givers. Senior citizens may suffer from a number of diseases, including the decline in cardiopulmonary conditions, weaker muscle functions and a declined neuromuscular control of the movements, which result in a higher risk of fall and a higher vulnerability for cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. With respect to cognitive functions, senior citizens may suffer from a decline of memory function, less ability to orientate and a declined ability to cope with complex situations. Mild dementia is another disease affecting this population, which requires either the institutionalization or the constant support from care-givers.

eWALL will be an affordable, easy-to-install prefabricated wall that can be mounted on an existing wall and includes, into the background, all the ICT technology needed to enable a number of services for the senior citizen to cover the major ontologies of Active and Healthy Ageing. The project will carry out high-risk and multi-disciplinary research and will have a large-scale demonstrator exercise for validating the concept with solid clinical evidence. This will include both technical-, user- and legal-evaluation, to measure with advanced tools and methodologies the impact on the QoL. The eWALL system will extend the state-of-the-art of Assistive Platforms and will significantly increase the independent living of seniors. The project will also perform socio-economic studies to deliver recommendations for the health sector that will result in mid- and long-term benefits for the sustainability of national health systems.