Resources in Germany
Organizations
- Communica Kommunikationskonzepte
"COMMUNICA KOMMUNIKATIONSKONZEPTE evolves software for handicapped persons. The focal point of our work is in the area of communication supports for people without phonetic speech. We set great store by the adaptability of our aids in the users individual needs and capabilities, Our target is, to reach the highest degree of independence, motivation and contentment by using the aid in the everyday life. So our dynamic and flexible communication system offers new chances to communicate for handicapped persons, who are not able to speak."
- Forschungsinstitut Technologie- Behindertenhilfe
An interdisciplinary organization dedicated to information collection and dissemination on assistive technology as well as development and testing of assistive devices. English and German.
- IWARD Project
The IWARD Project is a consortium with 10 partners out of 7 European countries. IWARD stands for "Intelligent Robot Swarm for Attendance, Recognition, Cleaning and Delivery." The project is funded by the European Commission. IWARD targets mainly hospitals and healthcare centers to overcome shortages of healthcare staff. To improve the quality of healthcare, these focal issues emerge: fast identification and location of patients needing immediate attention; reduction of human errors; effective cleaning in hospitals; wider reach of specialist medics, possibly attending patients remotely. To achieve this, IWARD presents a robot swarm delivering support to oversee activities in healthcare environments, providing a multipurpose, cost-effective and scalable solution to enhance quality of healthcare. Four major tasks are: attendance, recognition, communication and support (assisting/cleaning). Attendance means to monitor hospital wards by robots acting as a dynamic swarm. Recognition points out, that the swarm is able to recognize patients or objects needing attention, providing immediate information about the location and needs of the concerned patients. The robots can be equipped with different adaptable hardware components for floor cleaning and delivery of food, linen, medicine etc. All mobile robots are capable of providing patients and visitors with guidance and information. It provides easy to use but high tech interaction interfaces like voice control through mobile and fix-mounted robots. The swarm based approach unburdens the nursing staff from the details of robot control and central coordination – reducing the complexity of robot control to that of a chat, having the swarm negotiating which robot to use for each job, shortening the reaction time, reducing human error and increasing efficiency to deliver better patient care.
- Rehadat
Rehadat is a German broad-based vocational rehabilitation information system that includes databases of assistive devices, case studies, research, and literature in English. There is more German-only content. The project was commissioned by the Bundesministerium für Gesundheit und Soziale Sicherung (Federal Ministry for Health and Social Security) and is operated by the Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft Köln. Rehadat is a member of the Alliance of Assistive Technology Information Providers.
