Research Apartments at PLRI

The apartment as third healthcare location


Research Apartments at PLRI Research Apartments at PLRI Research Apartments at PLRI Research Apartments at PLRI

General aim

Primary aim of the research area is to explore the apartment in its' role as third healthcare location. New fields of action are driven by demographic changes, like establishing the apartment as diagnostic and therapeutic actor towards a healthy, secure and self-determined living at age. The research, thereby, comprises a range of subareas, each having its' own specific research questions.

Originating from the apartment itself, creation of a secure and comfortable living environment is one if the central subareas. It has the following sub-objectives:

The establishment as healthcare location creates another subarea, whose research fields are primarily from the medical domain. This comprises development and evaluation of methods to perform or support ...

A last subarea treats integration of the established healthcare location into existing healthcare processes, as well as its' touching points with other domains ,like city development. Relevant sub-objectives are:

Focus of research

The primary object of research is the home in its developed form as a health location, as well as the resulting relationships to other actors and research areas. The research is realized through a laboratory apartment, demonstrators and research buildings as well as through participation in various committees, working groups and networks.

The Research System HET Laboratory consists of a completely furnished bedroom, a bathroom and a cooking, dining and living area. The laboratory is realized as a room-in-room concept and is used for the effective testing of various Assistive Health Technologies, home bus systems and scenarios.

The Research Apartment Halberstadtstraße is an attempt to realize a comprehensively equipped demonstrator for assistive health technologies. As a research tool, this demonstrator will enable an efficient implementation of new AGT and help to evaluate them under controlled real-life conditions. The new research tool will thus become the missing link between the artificial laboratory condition and a completely real life condition. In the research apartment Halberstadtstraße selected test persons can live for a certain period of time and experience the added value of such a "smart home".

The Demonstrators of the BASIS Project are six research apartments in Bochumer Straße. The central objective of the BASIS project is to create a flexible and at the same time economical infrastructure for home automation. By integrating all trades into a complete system, the effort for the infrastructure can be drastically reduced by common use and symbiotic effects can already be used on a lower level.

Research registers are used to collect, collate and store health-related data that can be captured within the home by room-related sensors. The health-related data include everyday activities, processes and habits, movement, hygiene and nutritional behavior, as well as room climate.