Problems encountered in the development of AAL solutions

Many AAL projects have been funded to date – now there is a move to get products to the market. Journals and funding bodies encourage us to present our successes – but there are lessons to be learned, also from projects and products that do not reach their goals. To move forward, we need to better understand the challenges and problems we have faced and to identify the common patterns across different projects so that we can learn from them. The poster will present a preliminary mapping of themes gained from case studies of selected AAL projects, as well as from interviews and workshops with people involved in other projects. Drawing on the experience of a diverse group of people from companies, universities, research organisations and carer organisations, a series of themes/problems are presented, including aspects related to the development of products, stakeholder needs and financing. These issues are mapped according to whether experts perceive them to be within their control or not and how important they are thought to be to the overall success of AAL. To generate conversation around the poster, an interactive format will be used to allow people to contribute their own experiences with regard to problems.