Turntable and the aging theme: an ICT solution that helps seniors age better!
Good morning, everyone, and welcome back to a new article from the Lifely!
From October 18-20, we had the pleasure of participating in the European Week for Healthy and Active Aging, an event that this year took place in Gdansk, Poland.
We are talking about a networking and exchange platformthat involves partners from all over Europeand whose main goal is to find solutions that provide support for healthy and active agingof the elderly population.
This year we were also there with Project Turntable!
In this article, we will tell you more about the Turntable project, thanks to which we had the opportunity and pleasure to participate in the event.
Turntableis an ICT platformthat promotes healthy and active aging among the elderly, motivating them to adopt healthy lifestyles and engaging them in recreational activities of agriculture and social gardening.
The assumption was made that as people age, they tend to be less active and more sedentary. This leads to a number of problems such as muscle weakening and a decline in physical power and strength. The elderly thus become more frail and prone to constant falls and physical pain.
To counter this phenomenon and to invest more in the elderly population, the Turntable platform was designed, which integrates several ICT tools unified into one intuitive, customized and extensible solution.
Let’s see a little more in detail what it is all about.
To achieve its goals mentioned so far, Turntable deploys several technologies:
- Tomappo: web and mobile application that helps people grow their own vegetables, accompanying them through all stages of planning: from preparing the soil to caring for the plants to the harvesting stage, to employ the harvested produce in the kitchen;
- Lifely: web and mobile application that assists the user by providing both useful information for the good maintenance of plants and advice for good nutrition;
- Agrumino: wireless sensor developed by Abinsula, capable of monitoring temperature, soil moisture and plant brightness. The sensor sends this information to the Lifely app, thus informing the user about the condition of their vegetable garden through messages such as “I’m thirsty,” “I need light,” and then acting accordingly.
In addition, the aspect of sharing is fundamental and not negligible: within the Turntable platform, users can share and comment with the community on the results of their vegetable garden, comparing and providing suggestions on how to treat the plants.
In fact, another of the problems plaguing the elderly population is low participation in social activities.
Therefore, the Turntable project, among its objectives has that ofengaging usersin outdoor recreational activities, avoiding the sense of isolation from which many elderly suffer.
Finally, experiments have been carried out to test the Turntable project.
These were developed in Italy, Belgium and Portugal and involved about 200 people over 60.
The results, which are to be considered partial for now, have recorded great improvements, such as:
- The creation of social relationships within the Turntable community;
- Significant improvement in QoL (WHOQOL-OLD), cognitive function (MoCa), and subjective well-being;
- An improvement in the use of technologies by the elderly themselves.