Ambient Assistive Technologies (AAT): socio-technology as a powerful tool for facing the inevitable sociodemographic challenges?

Due to the socio-demographic change in most developed western
countries, elderly populations have been continuously increasing.
Therefore, preventive and assistive systems that allow elderly
people to independently live in their own homes as long as possible
will become an economical if not ethical necessity. These
respective technologies are being developed under the term "Ambient
Assistive Technologies" (AAT). The EU-funded AAT-project Ambient
Lighting Assistance for an Ageing Population (ALADIN) has
established the long-term goal to create an adaptive system capable
of improving the residential lighting conditions of single living
elderly persons also aiming at supporting the preservation of their
independence.Results of an earlier survey revealed that the elderly
perceived their current lighting situation as satisfactory, whereas
interviewers assessed in-house lighting as too dark and risk-laden.
The overall results of ALADIN showed a significant increase in
well-being from the baseline final testing with the new adaptive
lighting system.Positive results for wellbeing and life quality
suggest that the outcome effects may be attributed to the
introduction of technology as well as to social contacts arising
from participating in the study. The technological guidance of the
study supervisors, in particular, may have produced a strong social
reactivity effect that was first observed in the famous Hawthorne
experiments in the 1930s. As older adults seem to benefit both from
meaningful social contacts as well as assistive technologies, the
question arises how assistive technology can be socially embedded
to be able to maximize positive health effects. Therefore ethical
guidelines for development and use of new assistive technologies
for handicapped/older persons have to be developed and should be
discussed with regard to their applicability in the context of AAT.