CARU-Evalu - Evaluation of CARU, a voice-controlled device for home care

Austrian Research Promotion Agency

In the past years, various technologies were developed under the name “Active and Assisted Living” (AAL), meant to help prolong the older people’s ability to stay in their own homes. Voice assistants are already available on the market, but hardly any of them are fit for older people in need of care. Furthermore, the data security of these systems is often questioned by the media.

In the course of the cooperative international research project “CARU cares”, a voice assistant, CARU, with data security, is to be developed for older people in need of care. Its purpose is to facilitate communication between the home care service user and the care worker and to enable them to ask for help more efficiently in case of an emergency. Further, CARU supports voice-controlled documentation in the care recipient’s home.

The WU Research Institute for Economics of Aging coordinates the multidisciplinary evaluation of CARU (CARU-Evalu).