The experience described in this article demonstrated that AAL technologies are feasible and effective nowadays and can be actively used in assisting patients with AD in their homes. The extensive involvement of caregivers in the experimentation allowed to assess that there is, through the use of the technological system, a proven improvement in care performance and efficiency of care provision by both formal and informal caregivers and consequently an increase in the quality of life of patients, their relatives, and their caregivers.

Nowadays, the increasing old population 65+ as well as the pace imposed by work activities lead to a high number of people that have particular injuries for limbs. In addition to persistent or temporary disabilities related to accidental injuries we must take into account that part of the population suffers from motor deficits of the hands due to stroke or diseases of various clinical nature. The most recurrent technological solutions to measure the rehabilitation or skill motor performance of the hand are glove-based devices, able to faithfully capture the movements of the hand and fingers. This paper presents a system for hand motion analysis based on 9-axis complete inertial modules and dedicated microcontroller which are fixed on fingers and forearm. The technological solution presented is able to track the patients' hand motions in real-time and then to send data through wireless communication reducing the clutter and the disadvantages of a glove equipped with sensors through a different technological structure. The device proposed has been tested in the study of Parkinson's disease.

This paper presents the full experience of\ud designing, developing and testing ASTROMOBILE, a system\ud composed of an enhanced robotic platform integrated in an\ud Ambient Intelligent (AmI) infrastructure that was conceived to\ud provide favourable independent living, improved quality of life\ud and efficiency of care for senior citizens. The design and\ud implementation of ASTRO robot was sustained by a\ud multidisciplinary team in which technology developers,\ud designers and end-user representatives collaborated using a\ud user-centred design approach. The key point of this work is to\ud demonstrate the general feasibility and scientific/technical\ud effectiveness of a mobile robotic platform integrated in a smart\ud environment and conceived to provide useful services to humans\ud and in particular to elderly people in domestic environments.\ud The main aspects faced in this paper are related to the design of\ud the ASTRO’s appearance and functionalities by means of a\ud substantial analysis of users’ requirements, the improvement of\ud the ASTRO’s behaviour by means of a smart sensor network\ud able to share information with the robot (Ubiquitous Robotics)\ud and the development of advanced human robot interfaces based\ud on natural language

The ageing of population is a social phenomenon that most of worldwide countries are facing. They are, and will be even more in the future, indeed trying to find solutions for improving quality of life of their elderly citizens. The project RITA wants to demonstrate that an update of the current socio-medical services with an Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) approach could improve the service efficiency and the quality of life of both elderly and caregiver. This paper presents the preliminary results obtained in RITA.

The AALIANCE2 Project, funded by the European Commission's ICT Programme within the 7 th Framework Programme, aims at identifying the research priorities in the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) field in Europe and worldwide for the next decades. One of the main objectives of this Project is the development of an AAL Roadmap and Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) that, starting from the needs of the elderly and caregivers, describes the possible next generation of AAL service scenarios, the necessary key enabling technologies (KETs) and the technological, legal and economic requirements necessary for the implementation of the proposed AAL systems. Some of these new AAL scenarios show how technologies, such as robotics and ICT solutions, could be used in senior citizens' daily life activities to maintain their independence and to stay healthy and active in society. At the same time, other scenarios propose new approaches and solutions for caregivers to efficiently support old persons and optimize their work. The Roadmap and the Strategic Research Agenda finally present the future technological challenges to developing the proposed service solutions. This paper provides a short overview of the preliminary version of the AALIANCE2 Roadmap.