Smart Internet Unveils 'Nightingale' to Help Australia's Aging Population Reminisce and Improve Mental Fitness

Sydney - 13 April 2004 - Smart Internet Technology Cooperative Research Centre (Smart Internet), an incorporated joint venture between industry, academia and the Government, today unveiled an exploratory research project aimed at helping Australia’s aging population reminisce for social and intellectual fitness. In line with the Government’s National Health Priority Area (NHPA) initiative and National Research Priorities, the exercise is a joint project with National ICT Australia (NICTA) and will explore the needs of Australia’s aging population and the role of Internet technologies in memory sharing and reminiscing.

As Australia’s Baby Boomers flood onto the country’s aging population, reminiscing provides an important stimulant for mental and physical health. Nightingale aims to discover if and how technology can assist. New innovations such as an electronic pen and paper, an interactive ‘diamond table’ developed by Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, and personal servers are all under examination to see not only how they can encourage and capture memories but how they can integrate with the users’ natural environment and lifestyle. By removing the need for the PC, keyboard and mouse, the benefits of Internet technology can be delivered in a more familiar and natural way.

Early technology prototypes have already been drawn together in a laboratory and a series of field experiments have been completed using ‘Cultural Probes’ to get a better understanding of how older generations currently capture and reflect on memories. The probes offered participants a range of mediums from scrapbooks and tape recorders to cameras and even PowerPoint presentations with which to capture their memories. The resulting research is currently being collated to ascertain what types of memories are being recorded – from wartime stories and travel histories to family reminiscing and school day memories – how they were captured and shared, and what technologies can be utilised and developed to support this activity.

Dr. Aaron Quigley, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Information Technologies, University of Sydney is the Nightingale Project Leader with Smart Internet. He said: “Nightingale will help determine the natural computing environment for future generations and how technology can be made more accessible to social groups that may have missed the first wave of the Internet revolution. This way, memories can be shared and accessed by many, across a range of devices that fit into their current lifestyles and daily routines.”

The project is seen as a major cornerstone in enhancing the Government’s National Research Priorities program by using Internet technology to aid and assist older individuals.

Professor Darrell Williamson, CEO of Smart Internet said: “One of Smart Internet’s goals is to provide integration between technological innovation and social and behavioural research. Current technologies do little to bridge the huge gap that exists between the insights, memories and historical information held by older generations and a computing medium where this information can be stored and accessed. Nightingale is leading the field in exploring the technologies to capture and share memories in a reminiscing environment that will deliver improved social wellbeing and have a commercial outcome.”

Dr Mel Slater, CEO of NICTA believes Nightingale offers a comprehensive research environment to address those National Research Priorities that specifically look at Australia’s aging population. He added: “Nightingale positions Australia at the forefront of exploratory research and will be a significant driving force in helping build a world-class research centre and establishing Australia’s competitive edge in the ICT arena.”

With security and privacy being a high priority for dealing with personal information, NICTA’s Networks and Pervasive Computing program is exploring the standards in the networked environment to ensure a trusted wireless access to the information from anywhere.

Targeting an age bracket of 65 years and over, individual members from the Port Hacking ProbusClub (PHPC) were approached to be the first group to participate in the initial research stages. Speaking on behalf of the participants, PHPC president, Jan Barber said: “For members of our Club to be involved in research that could improve people’s lives is very exciting and a unique honour. One person can accumulate so much knowledge and experience and gain so many personal insights during their lifetime, that digging out and using all the information involved is really a problem. If many people are to share their personal memory-banks the problem is so much greater. This is where a project like Nightingale could be a tremendous advantage. Within the membership of our Club we have people with a wide range of backgrounds, achievements, and experiences who we believe were well suited to provide this sort of input to Nightingale.”

Nightingale is a three-year project with a funding framework of approximately $500,000 per year.

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