Assistive Technologies for the Interaction of the Elderly: The Development of a Communication Device for the Elderly With Complementing Illustrations and Examples

This book presents a wealth of insights and new conceptualizations for the development of Assistive Technologies for the Interaction of the Elderly. The book arranges the chapters according to important aspects of maximizing the use value in innovation projects. Every chapter will include an executive summary reporting the main results, a storyline using everyday language, and scientific excursions, wherever useful.

The book shows how an innovation project should be structured towards maximum use value and how a project should be structured in order to make a difference. It describes the useful categorization of the large group of the elderly to maximize the focus of the innovation and demonstrates the user involvement into innovation activities. Of course, the assessment of such innovative projects is discussed as well as the “lessons learned”. The book also explores the business opportunities and the financial evaluation of aspects of assistive technology.

Prof. Dr. Eckehard Fozzy Moritz has studied Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Munich, and received his Doctorate Degree at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He is currently director of Innovationsmanufaktur GmbH, a company masterminding, moderating, and facilitating innovation projects for public sponsors and foundations, for companies like BMW, Bosch and BASF, and for government agencies in Germany, Italy, Spain and Mexico. He holds a honorary professorship from Qufu University, China, and is adjunct professor at the Universidad de las Américas, Puebla, Mexico. Prof. Moritz has been chairman of the 6th World Conference of the International Sports Engineering Association, and has been teaching and consulting at universities in 27 countries world-wide. He is author of the book "Holistische Innovation", Springer-Verlag 2009, in which a new methodology to deal with complex innovation challenges is introduced.