AUTONOMY Homepage

AUTONOMY is a Technical Assistance System specifically designed to assist children and adults with profound disabilities to live a more independent life.

In 1995 the prototype system was installed in a smart room at Elisabethinum Axams, Tyrol, Austria. A further smart room was set-up in a Viennese school in 1998. Since 1999 a commercial version of AUTONOMY is available via Meschik u.Partner KEG and Rehatronik. An evaluation version (German) can be downloaded here.

A users' day where users reported about their experiences when using the system in daily life took place in December 2001. Link to users' days in German 2001.

AUTONOMY has been extended with Tele-Help functionality based on the API specification developed by the EU funded research project RESORT (1998-2001).

More information can be found on the German AUTONOMY homepage

The research prototype of AUTONOMY is described in the following selected publications

• P. Panek, C. Beck, S. Mina, G. Seisenbacher, W.L. Zagler: "Technical Assistance for Motor and Multiple Disabled Children - Some Long Term Experiences", in: K. Miesenberger, J. Klaus, W. Zagler (Eds.): Proc. of 8th ICCHP 2002, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, LNCS 2398, Springer, pp. 181-188, 2002.
• P. Panek, W.L. Zagler, C. Beck, N. Hine, G. Seisenbacher, N. Stefanakis: "Providing Tele-Support and Tele-Training to severely disabled Persons using IP-based Networks", Proc. of VIEWDET 2001, Vienna International Workshop on Distance Education and Training, 6.-7.12.2001.
• P. Panek, C. Beck, G. Seisenbacher, W. L. Zagler: "Technical Assistance for severely disabled Persons with integrated Tele-Help", Proceedings of the International Federation for Medical & Biological Engineering, in: R. Magjarevic, S. Tonkovic, V. Bilas, I. Lackovic (eds.), MEDICON - IX Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing, June 12-15, 2001, Pula, Croatia, pp.700-703.
• W.L. Zagler, P. Panek, C. Beck: "Therapeutic Benefits Resulting from Combining AAC with Environmental Control Systems", European Medical and Biological Engineering Conference, EMBEC '99, Vienna, 1999, in: P. Rehak, H. Hutten (eds.), Journal of Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing, vol. 37, suppl. 2, 1999, pp. 1374-1375.
• Zagler, W.L.; Flachberger, C.; Panek, P.: "Technical Assistance for Severely Motor- and Multiple Impaired Children", paper, proceedings of the IEEE symposium on Computer Based Medical Systems CBMS'97, Maribor, 1997
• Flachberger, C.; Panek, P; Zagler, W.L.: Compose Autonomy!- An Adaptable User Interface for Assistive Technology, Proceedings of the 2nd TIDE Congress (The European Context for Assistive Technology), IOS Press, Paris, 1995, p.413-416.
• Flachberger, C.; Panek, P; Zagler, W.L.: AUTONOMY - A Flexible and Easy-to-Use Assistive System to Support the Independence of Handicapped and Elderly Persons, in: Zagler, W.L. (Ed.): Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computers for Handicapped Persons, Vienna 1994, p.65-75.

Please contact one of the following members for more information: Paul Panek, Christian Beck, Gottfried Seisenbacher