Publikation
Wir im Kiez: Multimodal App for Mutual Help Among Elderly Neighbours
Sven Schmeier; Aaron Ruß; Norbert Reithinger
In: Zhengyou Zhang; Phil Cohen; Dan Bohus; Radu Horaud; Helen Meng (Hrsg.). ICMI '15 - Proceedings of the 2015 ACM on International Conference on Multimodal Interaction. ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI-2015), November 9-13, Seattle, Washington, USA, ISBN 978-1-4503-3912-4, ACM, New York, NY, 11/2015.
Zusammenfassung
In Germany and in other western societies the proportion of elderly people has been increasing for decades. As a
result these states are currently facing large demographic changes in terms of age structure and
population size, changes that will only increase in the future.
Elderly people often need support in everyday situations-e.g. regular responsibilities like taking care of house and garden or keeping
animals are often not possible without a larger support circle. The possibility of medical
treatment from illness, falls, or other physical impairments is significantly increased with age.
As a result older people are more vulnerable, and therefore reluctant to take on
responsibilities. Furthermore, especially in larger western industrial cities, local social networks may
not be very tight, friends may have moved away or died, and the traditional support
structures found in so-called multi-generational families don't exist anymore.
As a result, the quality of life of elderly people suffers crucially. Among other things,
hobbies and habits may have to be abandoned, and volunteer activities can no longer be
carried out. Therefore, these impairments affect not only seniors, but also people who rely on
them. Although people from the broader neighbourhood would often gladly help and respond
quckly, in larger cities with higher anonymity, people are afraid to approach each other. Often enough profesional help is needed which burdens on public finances.