Design for Wellbeing project (2009-2012)

A 1-million-euro grant has been awarded by Senter in July 2009 through the IOP IPCR program to the project Design for Wellbeing. The project is a collaboration between Eindhoven University, Delft University, University of Twente, Hogeschool Amsterdam and a group of industry partners. Research will be linked to three design cases from industry: (1) connecting elderly people and informal caregivers (Isolectra), (2) stimulating physical exercise through social networks (Adidas), and (3) connecting parents and premature babies (Maxima Medisch Centrum).

TU Delft will focus on the development of context-aware experience sampling methods. These methods aim to support product developers in creating new products for social connectedness. Using the sampling methods, developers can collect realistic user feedback in the field more accurately and efficiently. The sampling methods will enable fast design iterations. The Design for Wellbeing project builds on the results from the IOP-MMI project Independent at Home.

Independent @ Home (2007-2011)

A research project in close collaboration with industry (Isolectra, Innoviting) and the Technology for Care cluster has been setup. The primary project goal is to develop an integrated user interface for task-level control of communication and home automation facilities, instead of a functional based integrated system. The elderly-targeted interface and interaction concepts will be used to create personalized assisted living services that fit into everyday life, in close collaboration with industry and home care service providers (thuiszorginstellingen), and will be extensively tested in users’ homes.

Existing task models and dialog models will be adapted to support the user in using home care services. The services will be based on off-the-shelf home automation, communication and care products. Project focus will be on supporting the clients when using standardized treatment services (care) and not rather than on the more advanced medical services (cure).

More information: project website.

Residential Gateway project (2002-2004)

The Residential Gateway Environment project, which ended in 2004, researched both technical and user aspects of future residential gateways. A residential gateway connects products in the home, and connects the home to external networks.

Project members were KPN, Philips, TU Delft and TU Eindhoven. TU Delft participated in work package 6, the user interface work package. User studies have been performed to analyse the use of atmospheres in a living room. A demonstrator has been developed which allows users to easily select and update atmospheres. The user can not only use a graphical user interface, but also a speech interface and a tangible interface.