The SILC Project (finished)

EU funded project IST-2000-27524

SILC - Supporting Independently Living Citizens

The official (multilangual) project web-site can be found at http://www.fortec.tuwien.ac.at/silcweb/SILC.htm

Objectives

The Project SILC aimed at the development of an innovative and intelligent alarm system to increase safety and independence of elderly and disabled citizens. In contrast to existing alarm phones SILC should be equipped with a range of biometric sensors which can be programmed individually to trigger an alarm call automatically when a critical situation is detected. In order to increase the user benefit beyond the alarm function several additional utilities like a cordless phone, environmental control functionality and PDA like functions combined with an intuitive user interface were integrated to facilitate safe and independent living at home. In general, SILC should foster and facilitate a prolonged stay of senior citizens in the own household before institutional care will become necessary.

Description of the Work

The project was grouped into three main phases:

• The first phase (PrM 1 to 9) is dedicated to the analysis and transfer of the user needs to the system architecture specifications.The milestone for this phase is the completion of the system specifications (end of month 9).
• The second phase (PrM 8 to 24) is the construction period where all the system components (Hardware, Software) will be developed. The first part of this phase is dedicated to the development of the single modules which will be tested against the specifications: system kernel, telecommunication, sensors, user interface. During the final 6 months of this phase the modules will be integrated resulting in the prototype of the SILC-System. The milestone for this phase is a first prototype to be tested by real users.
• The third phase (PrM 25 to 36) contains the usual development cycle of testing, redesign/improvement and subsequent testing. Within the project one such cycle will be carried out. Workpackage 11 will take care of the verification, the second task of Workpackage 11 will be dedicated to the redesign, and user validation will be performed in Workpackage 12. Additional redesign and testing will be carried out by the exploiting partners between the end of the project and the start of production and marketing if necessary. Parallel to the three phases, Management (WP1), Exploitation (WP2) and Dissemination (WP3) will take place to guarantee optimal co-operation and timely provision of results as well as continuous focus on the market.

Further on, user involvement (WP4) across all phases of the project as a separate, permanent task has been created. This workpackage included the analysis and the assessment of user requirements and expectations, influencing specifications and system design, verification and validation of the prototypes. Quality Assurance and analysis of ethical impacts was another task of WP4.

Contact point

fortec / Research Group for Rehabilitation Technology Mr. Wolfgang Zagler Favoritenstrasse 11/029 A-1040 Vienna Austria

Tel.: +43 1 58801 42911 Fax: +43 1 58801 42999

Email:  silc-fortec@fortec.tuwien.ac.at

Participants

*C = Coordinator, P - Principal contractor, A - Assistant contractor, S - Subcontractor

Time Scale (finished)

Start date: January 2001
Duration: 36 months