SOCIABLE introduces a radically new approach to cognitive training of elderly individuals, which emphasizes the execution of ergonomic pleasant and motivating play activities (games) over multi-touch computers (surface tables, tablet PCs, surface computers). SOCIABLE supports personalized cognitive training interventions designed according to medically sound principles.
SOCIABLE consists of:
- A set of Cognitive Training Activities covering all the cognitive skills and are supported by surface computing equipment that are performed in a care center (in group or individual sessions) with the support of a medical expert or a specialised care center employee or at homes of the elderly with (or without) the support of a formal (or informal) carer,
- Supported Tools to the Medical Experts in order to design the training programme and to accommodate the cognitive training activities provided to the specific level of deficits of the elderly (personalization) monitor the evolution of its patients.
It is addressed to Aged/Elderly people that belong to 3 groups (Group A: Cognitively Intact Elderly aged 65+, Group B: Elderly aged 65+ suffering from Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), Group C: Patients aged 65+ with Mild Alzheimers disease), to Medical Experts and to Carers. It can be provided in Care provision Organizations such as Day Care Centers, Hospital Memory Clinics, Alzheimer Centers, Recreational Centers and in Elderly Homes.
Policy Context
The project is under the ICT Policy Support Programme of the Information Society of the European Commission in the Area: ICT-PSP.2008.1.4 - ICT for ageing well with cognitive.
SingularLogic Information Systems and Applications, Greece
Universidad Politecnica de Valencia - LabHuman, Spain
Agencia de la Innovacion de AIJU, Spain
Trondheim Kommune, Kulturenheten, Norway
Diagnostic and Therapeutic Center of Athens, Greece
Municiplity of Forli, Italy
PREVI S.L. - PsicologÃa y realidad virtual, Spain
Fondazione Santa Lucia, Italy
CEDAF Software e Persone, Italy
Municipality of Kifissia, Greece
Description of target users and groups
Elderly users with mild dementia and cognitive problems will make use of the SOCIABLE services in their homes or in care centers. In those places appropriate surface computing devices comprising surface tables and Tablet PCs offering ergonomic mixed reality user interfaces will be provided.
Elderly users will leverage these devices for:
- Individualized cognitive training based on games that will be configured and kept constantly adapted by their caretakers and/or expert operators,
- Collaborative (e.g., group based) cognitive training i.e. together with other users belonging to the same care centre.
- Social interaction with other elderly via the platform including a unique motivating system for bringing together, both physically and virtually, different elderly citizens
At the same time health professionals will also leverage SOCIABLE services in order to monitor and manage the health record of the elderly, while at the same time designing cognitive training sessions and social interactions
Description of the way to implement the initiative
The main deliverables of the project are the following:
Deliverable D5.2: Operational Pilot Sites
Deliverable D6.1: Pilot Operations Plan
Deliverable D9.1: Risk Identification and Management & Quality plan
Deliverable D8.1b: Dissemination and Sustainability Plan
Deliverable D5.1: Report on Pilot Sites Preparation and Assessment
Deliverable D4.1: SOCIABLE Perceptive User Interfaces
Deliverable D3.2: SOCIABLE Platform Specification
Deliverable D3.1: SOCIABLE Services Specification
Deliverable D3.3: Services Migration, Localization and Customization Specifications
Deliverable D2.3: SOCIABLE services bundles
Deliverable D2.2: SOCIABLE services definition
Deliverable D2.1: User Selection and Segmentation
Deliverable D1.4: Use Cases Elaboration
Deliverable D1.3: Pilot Requirements and Scenarios
Deliverable D1.2: End User Requirements
Deliverable D1.1: End User Requirements
Technology solution
The SOCIABLE service will leverage both legacy and emerging ICT technologies, in particular:
- Ergonomically tested perceptive user interfaces based on a multi-touch surface table. This consists of a specially configured display, and software emulating the mixed reality environment. In addition to surface tables, the SOCIABLE services will be also deployed over Tablet PCs. Surface tables will be used in the care centers, while Tablet PCs (being a lower cost option) will be used for in-home deployments.
- Specialized software corresponding to cognitive training games and social interaction applications in a surface computing environment. This includes animation and graphics required to provide an expressive and user friendly interface.
- Relational databases and ontological descriptions (e.g., XML, W3C OWL Ontologies) for managing profiling and cognitive training data.
- Broadband networking enabling the interconnection of home and care centers.
- Various middleware components and technologies enabling the interconnection and interoperability between homes and care centers.
The project's ICT infrastructure for ageing well will be based on state-of-the-art platforms for surface computing, including commercial multi-touch tables (notably the Microsoft Surface table). A variety of surface computing tables and devices are already commercially available, while several research prototypes have been also developed in the scope of research projects. SOCIABLE will select a commercial surface computing platform in order to better serve its pilot objectives and exploitation targets.
Technology choice: Proprietary technologyMain results, benefits and impacts
SOCIABLE will integrate, deploy and operate an innovative ICT-enabled on-line service for assessing and accordingly reinforcing the mental state of the elderly through pleasant gaming activities for cognitive training, while at the same time boosting their social networking and activating their day-to-day interpersonal interactions. SOCIABLE is envisaged as a service with high potential for societal impact that could add significant value to current service offerings of care services providers. Furthermore, it is associated with a clear business potential for sustainability and wider use by care service providers within (but also outside of) the SOCIABLE consortium.
Return on investment
Return on investment: Not applicable / Not availableLessons learnt
The main lessons learnt from building and deploying the SOCIABLE platform, as well as from the pilot operations of cognitive training activities based on surface computers are:
1) Regarding the use of surface computers for cognitive training:
- Surface computers, notably multi-touch surfaces can create novel ergonomic and motivating environments for executing cognitive training activities that will be appealing to the elderly.
- Computer-based cognitive training can facilitate health professionals towards better managing cognitive training sessions and patients' assessments. The vast majority of health professionals that were actively involved in the project assessed positively the SOCIABLE services.
- Cognitive training based on surface computing infrastructures is clearly beneficial to demented elderly. This is proven through the elderly testimonials, but also based on the assessment scores collected in the scope of the SOCIABLE clinical trials.
2) Regarding the developed applications and offered services:
- Elderly users are very keen on building their autobiography using the «Book-of-Life» applications. Results have shown that this activity improves their social activation.
- Different levels of difficulty for the cognitive training games can serve the needs of different target elderly groups (i.e. suffering from different forms of mild dementia).
3) Regarding service deployment & operation issues:
- The delivery of SOCIABLE services within both surface table and surface PCs provides good control over the total-cost-of-ownership of a SOCIABLE solution, thereby ensuring the potential ROI (Return-on-Investment). Surface tables are a viable option for care/day centers and hospitals. While SurfacePC/TabletPCs facilitate in-home deployments.
- The SOCIABLE services are appealing to care services organizations. The project has early on received numerous expressions of interest from care services organizations.
- A significant number of games (at least 25) are needed during a three-month session, otherwise sessions tend to become boring for the elderly participants.