iNeighbour TV

In this chapter, the authors present the on-going work of the iNeighbour TV research project that aims to promote health care and social interaction among senior citizens, their relatives, and caregivers. The TV set was the device chosen to mediate all the action, since it is a friendly device and one with which the elderly are used to interacting. A study, conducted among the project’s target audience, using a participatory design approach is addressed in the chapter. Its purpose was to better characterize this type of users, identify relevant features, and evaluate usability and user interface requirements targeted to television (in an IPTV infrastructure). The analysis of the study results, which ensured the revision of the project’s features, is also presented along with a comprehensive description of the validated features. Some of these include automatic user recognition system, medication reminder, monitoring system (of deviations from daily patterns), caregiver support, events planning, audio calls, and a set of tools to promote community service. The chapter also focuses on the challenges to define the evaluation of the iNeighbour TV through an analysis of related projects and their lab or in situ approaches, concluding that, although the in situ methodology is more complex, it is more suitable for the iNeighbour TV project. The process of implementing a field trial with this specific target audience is revealing important challenges, but the diversity of data that it potentially provides reinforces the relevance of such an evaluation.