INNOVATE:
Beleef de wereld van morgen.

AMBIENCE

Ambience is a in-home system which will measure crucial medical measures with the help of sensory technology and alarm the pre-chosen people in the case of an emergency, creating a secure environment.

Anita Athary Elise Scharbaai
Tilburg University
Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation (Both), International Business Administration (Anita) and Psychology (Elise)

Over het initiatief / About the initiative

AMBIENCE

In welke fase zit jouw initiatief? / In what stage is your initiative?

Ideefase

Heb je jouw initiatief al gevalideerd? / Did you validate your initiative?

Not yet, still in the ideation.

Meer informatie over jouw initiatief / More info about your initiative

To better explain the concept and highlight the demand and feasibility of it, we want to include some relevant academic research here.

  • According to The Netherlands Institute for Social Research the majority of older adults (persons aged 65+) in the Netherlands – 93% of 2.2 million – live in the community. (1)
  • Technology, home automation, tele-health services, and ‘ambient intelligence’ are increasingly becoming tools to support and monitor older adults with or without cognitive impairments, by improving their sense of safety and security as a means to support ageing-in-place. (2)
  • There have been studies conducted in the Netherlands in Baarn and Soest to determine the needs and motives of users of ambient intelligence and the solutions offered by ambient intelligence. They found that motives for using this system included, strong aversion of institutionalization, sense of independence, sense of safety and the need for an alternative for wearables (such as emergency buttons, pendants of bracelets) since they sometimes forget to wear them. (3)Companies such as SensareCare and Philips have been working on smart home solutions for improving quality of life for more than two decades. They have successfully implemented many sensory techniques in product for home monitoring yet opportunities for improvement and novelty remain. Being a start-up allows you to think outside the box and innovate without boundaries which larger corporations struggle with constantly.

Reference list

  1. A.H. de Boer (Ed.), Rapportage ouderen 2006, Veranderingen in de leefsituatie en levensloop. [Report older adults 2006. Changes in the living situation and life course], The Netherlands Institute for Social Research, The Hague, The Netherlands, 2006 (in Dutch).
  2. P. Tang, T. Venables, ‘Smart’ homes and telecare for independent living, ournal of Telemedicine and Telecare 6 (1) (2000) 8–14.
  3. Van Hoof, J., Kort, H., Rutten, P., & Duijnstee, M. (2011). Ageing-in-place with the use of ambient intelligence technology: Perspectives of older users. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 80(5), 310–331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2011.02.010

Wat zijn jouw volgende stappen om het verder te ontwikkelen? / What are your next steps to develop the initiative?

Allow us to explain how we would want to move forward with our idea. As we step into the ideation phase, we would have to conduct more market research to determine the parameters of the market; its size, opportunities, and limitations. In addition to that, we would have to run a competitive analysis to determine the competitive landscape of this industry. From there we would move on to the prototyping phase in which we work would on the design and functionality of the hardware and software needed for our ambient intelligence system. The prototype would then also help us analyze the feasibility of our concept. After having made a prototype we can take it to the market and investigate the desirability of our value proposition. We can interview potential early adopters and gather more input on which features need to be adapted, removed, or added. Thus, we would be able to continue with the viability of our idea which includes a cost analysis and projection for future cash flows and sustainability. When we reach this stage we can present our final concept. Finally we would need support to make our idea business-ready.

Wat heb je nodig om (nog meer) impact te maken met dit initiatief? / What do you need to make (more) impact with this initiative?

To truly create an impact with our business idea we would need to research the needs and wants from our target population very closely and frame our concept to speak to our customers. We would need to make our hardware easily available and make the incorporation of it in people’s homes as low-invasive as possible. Apart from the functional value it would hold for our clients, we would need to highlight its emotional value. We would promote, sense of safety, ease-of-mind and comfort which we know our customers would value even more than the functionality. The challenge we face is also making this product and service affordable since luxury pricing would limit the accessibility for our customers.