Research from the University has been featured on this year’s Parliamentary report on Research & Development in assistive technology on the Department of Health website.
This annual report is published in accordance with section 22 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 and describes the wide range of Government funded projects supporting the development, introduction and evaluation of assistive technology that might increase the range of activities and independence or wellbeing of disabled and older people.
The front page of the report features In Touch, a project which aims to help people with dementia to connect with relatives or friends in other households as ‘virtual visits’, in order to reduce social isolation. The two-way video system provides a wide view of the family living room or kitchen, where the person with dementia could, for example, watch and hear the grandchildren playing.
The collaborators are the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering (BIME), the Research Institute for the Care of Older People (RICE), Lisa Austin at Bath Research & Development and Dr Niki Panteli from the School of Management.
The project is funded by the Research in the Wild Call as part of the Digital Economy Programme. The Digital Economy Programme is a Research Councils UK cross council initiative led by EPSRC and contributed to by AHRC, ESRC, and MRC.
BIME, an independent charity aligned to the University of Bath, have a special mention in this report as they has increasingly focused their development activity to respond to requests from members of the public whose needs are not met by current products. These requests are put through a process of review and this is supplemented by advice from a panel of AT professionals, occupational therapists and physiotherapists from around the UK who identify the needs of their clients and critique existing assistive technology products.