Client / Funding programme:
Horizon Europe:
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/951978
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for them.
Start and end dates:
01/2022 – 12/2023
Website: vr2care.eu
AFEdemy role in the project:
The main task of AFEdemy is developing the exploitation plan for VR2Care and defining a business strategy to be followed by each of the project partners. This also includes defining the business models for the market uptake of the project results. In addition, in terms of co-created health pathways and organisation, AFEdemy is also involved in the needs assessment of potential secondary and end users and in developing practical training for physiotherapy and psychomotor professionals who will use the developed Virtual Reality Platform and associated technology. Moreover, AFEdemy is involved in communication activities such as dissemination of the project via the internet or regional/online workshops for key stakeholders.
☐ Coordination
☒ Research
☒ Training
☒ Curriculum development
☐ e-Learning Platform
☒ Networking
☐ Policy recommendation
☐ Sustainability
Multiuser immersive experiences can provide an opportunity to leverage health results and quality of life in smart ageing care environments. Virtual Reality (VR) current approaches for the Silver Economy follow a common pattern: the gamified experience. VR2Care breaks the current VR paradigm in smart living environments by enabling a multi-user mixed reality service, available for embodied exercising group in different physical locations at the same time and with expert exercise supervision. Motivation is empowered in VR2Care by a social commitment. A social experience of several people sharing difficulties and fighting isolation, replaces the “the patient/user and the application” paradigm, and the gamified entertainment experiences.
VR2Care goes beyond the common requirements as it is co-designed with active participation of older adults, caregivers, therapists, community and clinicians to provide a full immersive multiuser experience. VR2Care will leverage the technology by running four demonstrators that support the project pilots in three locations across the EU: Portugal, Netherlands and Italy. Demonstrators explore the multiuser capabilities of the environment in a distance psychomotricity training with large movements; multimodal natural interaction, with real time AI supported guidance for a one-to-one physical rehabilitation experience; an hybrid approach with a local group of older adults and a distance individuals performing physical activities; and a clinical approach for the promotion of exercise as a therapy after rehabilitation.
VR2Care opens up a global market to deliver services and products to customers, where distances between provider and customer disappear. Business opportunities go beyond the technological and technical companies, expanding challenges for the AAL ecosystem including companies such as broadcasters, architects, therapists, training and education institutions to deliver at any place trainings, advices and design.
The overall strategy of VR2Care work plan foresees a distribution of the work into six (6) distinct work packages (WP), which can be classified into common “horizontal” activities involving all the partners, and “vertical” activities that will focus expert partners on specific themes. See interrelation (perts) in the figure below. Each WP is structured as a series of finite, effective and well-defined tasks resulting in a work plan.
