Reflections on the Carelink Project

As 2020 drew to a close so did the Carelink project research lifecycle. Carelink-AAL is a team of researchers, innovators and businesspeople from across Europe, committed to delivering a low-cost, location and proximity monitoring system suitable for Dementia sufferers.  

The project commenced in August 2017 and was funded under the European AAL programme.  

The project partnership included six partners from several countries, CREAGY, UNINOVA, U-Sentric & Akademie Berlingen, TSSG and OpenSky. The goal was to collaborate to create a smart, adaptive and low-cost solution for positively managing the wandering of people with dementia, thereby reducing stress for these individuals and their carers. According to the latest figures by the World Health Organisation, 50 million people live with dementia and every year there are reportedly 10 million new cases.  

The Solution Delivered by the Team: 

• An adaptive wearable belt clip or in-soles tracking device, customised to meet the unique needs of people with dementia 
• A context-aware, smart-energy wireless sensor suite providing proximity & location data 
• An open cloud-based ecosystem supporting remote system access and future services development 
• Intelligent definition of smart safe zones & the prediction of unusual behaviour which may indicate wandering 
• An alert system that warns of potential hazards or atypical wandering episodes 

Key Roles of the Partners: 

OpenSky 

Front-End GUI Design 
Privacy & Security Designs 

TSSG 

Project Coordinator 
Technical Management 
System Design 
Platform Development 
Community Development 
Verification & Validation 
System Development 

U-Sentric

End User Requirement workshops 
Design & Usability Concepts 
Trial Scenarios with End Users 

CREAGY

Requirement Gathering Process 
Implementation & Systems Integration 
Business Planning & Market Strategising 
Dissemination 

UNINOVA 

Sensor Design and Integration 
First Lab & User Tests 
Education & Training 
Dissemination 

Akademie Berlingen 

End-User Requirements 
Pre-Testing 
Testing System Designed 

Research for the Future 

OpenSky are proud to be able to play a part in innovating cutting edge technologies with real benefits to real people, so to develop our innovation expertise further, we launched our Research Projects Division in 2019. Through this division, which we have expanded our networking activities, our research ideas and are now building exciting new ways of delivering digital solutions through new technologies. We have since, gotten involved in many projects such as; partnerships/consortia for Horizon 2020 projects, IMI - Innovative Medicines Initiative, ISA² - Interoperability solutions for public administrations, businesses and citizens, EBSI – European Blockchain Services Infrastructure, etc. We have now a fantastic foundation as we work toward the 2021-2027 EU MFF.  

As GovTech specialists and members of the EU, OpenSky are compelled and obliged to deliver robust integrated solutions to the public sector, that meet the digitally minded demands of the EU citizens of today. For the EU public sector stakeholders, OpenSky aim to provide interoperable communication solutions that enable public and private agencies to achieve seamless connectivity, even in the most challenging of environments.  

We are grateful for the opportunity to be part of a strong consortium, a group of excellent professionals, working on a project dedicated to people who need our support.  

Read the full end of year Carelink Newsletter here.