Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESEHow can digitalization help to minimize loneliness in old age?
In the project Digital Neighbors, Fraunhofer IESE demonstrated how digital voice assistants can reduce the loneliness of senior citizens.
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Reference Project: Digital Neighbors
How can digital tools prevent senior citizens from becoming lonely in their place of residence? The project Digital Neighbors was about minimizing loneliness in old age with the help of digital voice assistants, such as Amazon’s Echo Show. The project was open for participation by senior citizens over the age of 70 living in the Breitwiesen district of Zweibrücken. The program content was tailored individually and included, for example, news, memories, weather forecasts, bus connections, video calls, and garbage collection information. The aim of the project was to minimize the loneliness of senior citizens by keeping them connected from home.
Challenge
- People in old age are often lonely
- In old age, people have a low level of social participation
Contributions of Fraunhofer IESE
- Designing and developing the voice and video assistant used in the project
- Planning and conducting workshops
- Pre-selecting third-party services for the persons participating in the model project
- Reducing hurdles regarding the use of the assistant and increasing the participants’ digital competencies
- Operational activities around the technology used in the project
- Evaluation of the project
Goals / Results
- The aim of the project was to find out how the loneliness of senior citizens can be reduced and their social participation strengthened with the help of a digital assistant.
- The use of the voice and video assistant, the use of skills on this device, and the use of video calls led to the following effects:
- Senior citizens love their assistant
- Measurable positive effects on their psyche
- Reduction of the feeling of loneliness
- Less boredom
- Drastic reduction of loneliness
- With the help of the digital assistant, 3/4 of the participants maintain more social contacts than before
- Social ties with acquaintances can be maintained more easily due to the possibility of video calls
- Even participants without computer experience are able to use the device independently
- The assistant is still actively used even after a long period of use