MATUROLIFE’s goal is to develop new materials capable of offering assistive technologies for the elderly with a high degree of aesthetic design and functionality. The challenges are, therefore, new materials and design. Three pilots will be generated to test these assistive technologies with elderly people: Armchair (in which the Aragonese partner MUEBLECONFORT participates), shoe and clothing.
The project is focused on the active involvement of adults from all over Europe from the early stages of ideation of different products, such as smart footwear, clothing and furniture, which are provided with a set of smart, sensorized and metallized fabrics using novel techniques with CUNP (copper nanoparticles).
There is a need to include these technologies in the daily life of the elderly, without this implying the use of ‘strange devices’ or devices that are clearly additional to those they use in their daily lives; that is, through the armchair, the shoe and the clothing we will obtain information from the user that will help support the medical/health care they require.
Sensors have been developed to detect behaviors such as stumbling or anomalies in people’s breathing patterns, which allow the establishment of early warning mechanisms with the aim of promoting the independence of our elders, without the need for them to leave their most beloved environment, their home.
The developments include a shoe insole developed in La Rioja by the Footwear Technology Center of La Rioja (CTCR) and the company calzados Pitillos; and a sofa, manufactured by MuebleConfort, in Zaragoza, with electronics developed by ITAINNOVA; as well as a T-shirt developed by the Polish company Luksja with electronics developed by the Slovak company ISN.
Finally, we worked on data analysis for the generation of a hierarchical structure of cascading behavioral models, using neural network algorithms and deep learning techniques. Future lines of work were identified that open up the integration of this type of smart-clothes that, due to the use of materials such as copper, facilitate recycling and reuse at the end of their useful life, favoring the circular economy and the potential of integrating this sensorization in products of daily use for the generation of alerts that allow early assistance invisibly to the user and contacts were established for future lines of work in areas of the silver economy, which is the system of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services aimed at utilizing the purchasing potential of the elderly and satisfying their consumption, living and health needs; or the automotive industry.
