Overview
For all generations, unrestricted individual mobility is crucial for social exchange and participation. A self-determined life in old age therefore requires support in coping with distances.
The aim of the ViBe project is to develop and test an assistance system for elderly people to increase their independent mobility in a metropolitan environment. The assistance primarily assists in guiding people to destinations that can be reached on foot or by public transport. The developments in the project are based on replacing a physically present accompanying person, who can guide an elderly person to the most diverse goals, with the help of a virtual companion. This is a combination of an electronic tool and a support service in the background.
The guiding principles of this development are to simplify the interaction extremely, to exclude operating errors and to create a high level of trust and security for the users.
For the implementation of the virtual companion, an own voice-controlled mobile terminal is developed. Choosing your own hardware opens up the possibility of targeted optimization, in particular enabling a video connection between the user and the supervisor in real time. The decision to choose their own hardware also offers the opportunity to supplement navigation assistance with medical monitoring and telemedicine services.