CARE - extending a digital picture frame with a recommender mode to enhance well-being of elderly people

This contribution addresses the development of technology for the elderly with the aim to improve their general well-being. We report work on a prototype system named CARE that combines the functionality of a digital image frame with an active recommender mode. Recommendations are chosen on the basis of context information acquired by sensors embedded in the user´s environment, and a well-being model to carefully decide on at which point in time what kind of activity is most suitable to suggest. We describe conception and implementation of a first CARE prototype that we used for in-situ testing in a senior´s home, as well as for gathering feedback on system usage and user appreciation. The paper concludes with some lessons learned from analyzing log file data of the trial period and from conducting a post-trial interview.