Abstract

The current situation in demographic development leads to numerous approaches aiming at the integration of technology into elderly life. To cover aspects of audio-visual supervision and behavioural data a lot of sensor systems are necessary. However the acceptance for such systems is expected to be low and difficult to gain if complete living areas have to be induced with cameras, microphones and building automation. We argue that a mobile service robot with integrated multimedial hardware can improve the acceptance of technology-related emergency recognition and supervision. Furthermore, the quality and flexibility of the application itself may benefit. The proposed solution is of course a best-effort system which under certain circumstances can encounter problems.