The project partners met together in Athens in June to test the kit first-hand and learn more about the topic from the experts. However, the training was important because the consortium will soon be testing the kits in their countries with other participants.

The target group for this project is seniors, therefore it was explicitly focused on keeping the content as simple as possible.

But why is SmartHome an important topic for seniors?

Sustainability and energy efficiency are of course among the most important benefits of SmartHome. User comfort is also at the top of the list. Nevertheless, SmartHome for seniors also brings a completely different aspect, which also stood out in our research phase.

SmartHome systems offer users a certain level of security. Seniors can better secure their homes by using surveillance cameras, motion sensors, alarms. However, when we talk about security, health monitoring is also equally important. With SmartHome systems, especially the older persons can be reminded to take their medications on time with various tools and settings. Fall detection is also an important aspect, whereby emergency contacts are immediately informed if such an occurrence happens. In the same way, voice assistants offer the possibility of calling for help more quickly and requesting immediate assistance in life-threatening situations.

Because of these and other reasons, this project was started and is now in the middle of the developing and testing phase. The piloting in the respective countries will start very soon and the project partners are looking forward to have elderly people participating in this testing phase. The importance of the topic is not only addressed, but the SmartHome Kit is used and programmed directly in small simple steps using a Raspery Pi.

In the meantime, the user-friendly instructions are being translated into the different languages and the next face-to-face meeting for this project is scheduled. There, the next steps will be discussed and planned.