Caregiving is a social group activity. Collaboration within a group of caregivers is key. Collaboration can be a challenge. ConnectedCare builds on social networking theories to support day-to-day caregiving through digital and non-digital tools. Our goal is to boost bottom-up collaboration through inviting and non-intrusive cues.

Whereas traditional screen-based interaction works well in many situations, we explore new ways to better engage people who prefer other types of interaction. For example – many frail seniors rather do not use a tablet computer. We design and develop new social robotics interactions that better address the needs of people in need of care.

The use of digital tools and services is ubiquitous. Digital solutions are for example used to advocate healthy life style, distribute care tasks, and increase home safety. Success generally depends on how much the end users are willing and able to contribute to shared goals and adapt their living routines. Through persuasive design techniques we help our end users achieve their goals and self-manage their life.

We want to support households to adopt sustainable lifestyles. We look at sustainability holistically by offering a technical and social understanding of the factors that influence the consumption of energy at homes. We develop innovations that provide knowledge, facilitate shared decisions, and monitor impact of new practices. We aim to create resilient households that are autonomous and competent to adjust their practices in ways that fit their dynamics. Our solutions involved monitoring of technical factors such as indoor climate censors and energy meters and social factors such as individual’s experiences, preferences, and values towards the use of energy.  We provide playful ways to use this knowledge for understanding, adjusting, and evaluating the impact of daily practices at home.