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IEETA (University of Aveiro, Portugal) successfully completed its participation in IMAGINE-B5G Open Call 2, developing and testing solutions for healthy aging at home at the Instituto de Telecomunicações (Aveiro) facility over a 9-month period. In the scope of the “eHealth” vertical, trials demonstrated a virtual gym and a solution for physical activity monitoring based on radars, showcasing the potential of 5G-connected homes and sensors/devices installed in homes to support and motivate older people to be more active and ultimately allowing them to stay longer in their own homes.

IMAGINE-B5G is a Horizon Europe / SNS JU initiative that provides an advanced end-to-end 5G/B5G platform enabling large-scale trials and pilots across Europe. The project federates experimental facilities in Norway, Spain, Portugal, and France, offering SMEs, start-ups, academia, and industry access to test innovative vertical applications and platform extensions. “Connected Home for Healthy Aging – CHHA” was one of the 15 projects selected in Open Call 2.

The project aimed at establishing a state-of-the-art connected environment for a smart home transforming it in a testbed for the idealization, prototyping, and evaluation of next-generation health solutions, particularly those with high demand in terms of bandwidth/transmission speed, external computation, and/or secure handling of large volumes of sensitive personal and health-related data.

IEETA deployed and demonstrated a virtual gym and a radar-based monitoring solution using the IT-Aveiro facility to test their performance related to network and remote processing. Usefulness and usability of the solutions was also evaluated through tests with a selected group of users. The project achieved the following results.
– Proof-of-concept Development: Functional prototypes of the virtual gym and radar-based monitoring solution.
– Public Demonstrations: The solutions were successfully demonstrated at IT-Aveiro facility.
– User Evaluation: Users responded positively regarding intuitiveness, fluidity, and tracking quality of the gym and highlighted the unobtrusiveness, privacy-preserving nature, and practical value of the radar-based monitoring solution.
– Real-World Deployment: Both solutions were successfully deployed and demonstrated in a real home environment.

The project significantly contributed to R&D advancements concerning 5G-enabled at-home health solutions for older adults. This work has the potential to generate a positive societal impact by contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals of “Good Health and Well-Being” and “Sustainable Cities and Communities”. The obtained results demonstrate the potential of CHHA’s solutions for further research and strengthen Europe’s position in the B5G ecosystem.

IEETA plans to continue this research trajectory by evolving the solutions developed for CHHA and implementing additional new solutions for smart homes, based on 5G connectivity, in collaboration with IT-Aveiro and potential partners from other IMAGINE-B5G projects.