ALFRED: A Personalized, Fully Interactive, and Mobile Assistant for Independent Living

The ALFRED—Personal Interactive Assistant for Independent Living and Active Ageing (https://alfred.eu)—project has developed a mobile, personalized butler, created using cutting-edge technologies that will ensure that it is easy to use for older people who may not be so technologically confident, and will provide context-sensitive services related to social inclusion, care, physical exercise, and cognitive games. The project itself is organized around four key pillars that provide the framework for the ALFRED virtual assistant. The first pillar consists of a user-driven interaction assistant, which aims to empower individuals with age-related dependencies to live successfully independently for longer by delivering a virtual butler with seamless support for tasks inside and outside of the home.The second pillar is based on voice-based interaction and is focused on actively encouraging social participation by older people by suggesting and managing events and other social activities. This is done through an adaptive user profile that is fully controlled by the user. The third pillar is dedicated toward personalized care processes, and it does this through direct access to key vital signs for (informal) carers, allowing the alarm to be raised in the case of a medical emergency. Finally, the fourth pillar concentrates on the prevention of physical and cognitive impairments. This is achieved through integrating personalized serious games, which aim toward improving the specific physical and cognitive needs of the user.