Laurens Meulenbroek

Innovation & Aging: the Image About the Elderly User in the Smart Homes Sector Laurens Meulenbroek

In European and other developed countries there is an increasing number of elderly people while the number of younger people declines. This leads to an increasing demand for care and costs for society are growing. In the field of gerontechnology elderly-Smart Homes are an upcoming technology which are a possible solution to the proportional rise of the ageing population. This research is trying to analyze which images about elderly users explicitly or implicitly are created by designers. A distinction is made between images created with an individual lag perspective, which is based on deficits of elderly users and is related to ?have to use? assistive technologies, and with a socio-structural lag perspective, which is based on needs and preferences of elderly users and is related to ?want to use? everyday technologies. Two European projects in the research phase and two Dutch projects in the implementation phase of the elderly-Smart Homes sector are used as case study for qualitative research. The influence of the image about elderly users by designers on technological development and implementation strategies is analyzed and policy recommendatations are made.