A videophone prototype system evaluated by elderly users in the living lab Schwechat

Abstract

Elderly people often experience difficulties in using modern Information and Communication Technologies. This paper presents findings of an evaluation and a field test of a touch screen based internet videophone system mounted in a wooden frame in order to provide a non technical appearance. During a 14-day lasting field test in real-life environment the goal was to evaluate if and to what extent the elderly participants would benefit from using such a modern multimodal way of communication. Four prototype systems were installed in four private homes and were tested successfully by six persons. It was found that the elderly users actually benefited from the touchscreen control, the proportionally large-scale GUI and the VoIP-and video-telephone functions. Despite the small scale of the evaluation the gathered data demonstrates the potential this technology might have in daily life in particular for the emerging ambient assisted living (AAL) area. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009.