Welcome to the module on technology and aging. My name is Professor Fernando Martin-Sanchez. This module includes two videos. This is the first one. In this video, we are going to give an overview of the technologies that are currently being applied in the field of age care and, and ageing, and in the second video we will look into the future and we will look into the technologies that have the potential to extend life, or improve how we age. There are a number of driving forces that are making us to think of applying technology in this area of ageing. The demographic transitions, so the number of people living longer. The associated burden of chronic disease, that evolution on mobile technologies including phones and tablets smartphones, and so on. And also the, what has been called the participatory movement or consumer reason. Where people are more aware of their rights, and they want to have access to their information, and the, they want to play a more active role in their health, as well. Technology is is more affordable, is easier to have access to technology, and population in general have higher levels of education. So there are a number of existing technologies that are being applied in the field of ageing. I will, say that we could group them into, in two groups. So, one is Assistive technologies, so technologies that help people to perform a task more, more safely such as Smart Home tools Robotics, or hm, censors to monitor and detect falls. But also we have more general information and communication technology tools that can be applied in this field, such as in the area of Telehealth, online support, or social media, games, and other technologies that can contribute to reduce the isolation of elderly people. Another way of looking into the different technologies that are currently being applied in this, in this field is by the application domain. So some of those technologies are being applied to improve diagnosis, and treatment such as monitoring of vital signs with instruments usually connected via telephone to web-based services, or medication reminders. Also technologies that can be applied to improve security and safety, such as to detect falls through the use of wearables, or accelerometers, or non-wearable technologies such as cameras, motion sensors, sound sensors, or pressure sensors. We also have Smart homes, assistive technologies, so this have to be taken into account in the constructions of future homes. And we need to put an emphasis on integration of the information that is being collected through these different censors at home, and Smart homes represents a critical aspect of the concept of ageing in place. Finally, we can also talk about Robotics, technologies that can assist the elderly with routine tasks in the home, or also with rehabilitation, or cognitive stimulation. And another way of looking to the different technology's that can be applied is looking into the context, so we have technology that have basically dealing with information from the body, like personal sensors or monitoring devices. But we can also have technologies that are dealing with data collected at the home environment, so activities of daily living, we have also technologies that are used at the social level. So to put people in contact with their families, their friends, their neighbors at the local community level. We have also technologies that support broader networks hm, particularly in the clinical domain, so connecting people with caregivers, or with clinicians. And finally, we can also apply technologies to connect people at home with the society at large. So for instance, people that wants to want to do some voluntary work, or that can be active in, in politics, and so on. Well, those technologies, all those technologies that are being applied. Currently, in ageing, have the potential for improving a number of aspects related with the life of elderly people. For, for instance, they have the potential to improve quality of life, independent living, occupation in life, and knowledge sharing, recreation aspects of life, health promotion, they can reduce isolation, and they can extend the time that we spend at home, or at a community residence. They can contribute to improving some of our physical, or mental health established or aspects. They can delay the onset of serious health problems. They can reduce family, and caregiver burden, and they can also contribute to extend life what has been called longevity technologies that we will see in the second video of this module. But there are some unknowns also, as well there are some issues in the social unethical areas that we need to, to deal with and we need to address some barriers and gaps. For instance, the cost associated to this kind of interventions, age-related issues, such as the ability of the elder older people to read in digital devices. The functionality of technologies issues related to the attitude with respect to the use of new technologies. And the need to provide training and support. The insufficient evidence still available for developing this kind of interventions. Areas, like privacy that needs to be taken very, very seriously, for instance monitoring can represent some kind of risk to privacy. We have the need to deal with new business models. And how to replace traditional services with those new technology based services. And finally, we have to deal with the problem of access to these new technologies, and try to make sure that equity is in place always. I would just want to mention a few examples of successful application of current technologies in into ageing different ageing-related projects or, or aspects. Mm, all of them have been funded by one of their multi-disciplinary research institutes at the University of Melbourne. The Melbourne Networked Society Institute, formerly known as IBES, the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society. The first one is a project to detect falls, based on a non-contact 3D sensor provided by a company called Semantrix. The second one is Smart Companion. Is a system that can facilitate medication management for older people with chronic illness, and this project has been led by Dr. Parampal from the Medical School of Engineering. And finally, a project on mobile, and broadband technologies applied for ameliorating social isolation in other people. And this has been led by Associate Professor Frank Vetere, also from the Melbourne School of Engineering. You can find here the links to documents that describe those projects. And finally, I invite you to join us for the second video in which we will be looking to the future to concepts such as the convergence of technologies, gerontechnology, transhumanism, singularity, and technologies for life extension. Thank you very much.
