Design for healthy ageing: A smart system to decrease LONELINESS for older people (DELONELINESS).
DELONELINESS is an interdisciplinary team combining expertise in Social Gerontology, Psychology, Design, Smart Composite Material, and Artificial Intelligence from three universities:
- Kings College London
- University of Chester
- University of Sussex
Our industry partners include the Housing Learning and Improvement Network (LIN) and KYMIRA Ltd as well as policy experts and relevant stakeholders. Together, we aim to create a smart system to detect loneliness at home. The timely and accurate identification of loneliness of older people would enable informed care choices at home. The objective of this research is to determine different levels of loneliness via bespoke multi-sensing monitoring.
Aims
To tackle the societal challenge of loneliness in older people by:
- Exploring older people’s experience of loneliness across a variety of sociological and psychological parameters.
- Identifying user requirements and design characteristics of a smart monitoring and communication system (SMCS)
- Designing and developing the SMCS which will monitor and analyse the type and extent of loneliness in older people
- Developing the integrated product solution and enable informed decisions on housing and care choices through social policy and support schemes.
Principal Investigator
Professor of Design Engineering and Innovation
Investigators
Professor of Healthcare Engineering
Professor of Social Gerontology
Affiliations
Funding
Funding Body: The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
Amount: £1.5 million
Period: May 2022 - May 2025