GAL

The research network for designing age-based living environments in Lower Saxony, »GAL (Niedersächsischer Forschungsverbund Gestaltung Altersgerechter Lebenswelten)«, researches and evaluates information and communication technologies that could contribute to a higher standard of living, better health and more self-determination in the second half of one's life. On the basis of four actual scenarios, the implemented solutions are evaluated for their usability and effectivity. Furthermore, the acceptance in a wider part of the population, economic impact, development and usability potentials are to be evaluated.

Responsibilities of Fraunhofer IDMT

In the various scenarios, the Fraunhofer IDMT's Oldenburg Branch for Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology HSA focuses on a personal memory and household assistant for the elderly and on the acoustic recognition of critical situations (e.g. fall recognition) at home. In the course of the project, acoustic methods are developed that allow an intuitive use of speech controlled technical support systems. Also, recognition systems are being developed that reliably detect critical events even under difficult acoustic conditions like room resonance or noise. For this, procedures for acoustic localization and direction filtering as well as the hardware setup of the appropriate arrangement of multiple microphones are of a great importance.