TIDE Technology Initiative for Disabled and Enderly people

Egidio Ballabio (Head of Unit. TIDE Office - Direction Generale XIII - EEC

RIASSUNTO: Il progetto TIDE della CEE riguarda lo sviluppo di tecnologie per l'assistenza e la riabilitazione di anziani e disabili da un punto di vista interdisciplinare.
La finalita' del TIDE e' quella di stimolare progetti di ricerca e sviluppo all'interno della CEE, per migliorare la qualita' di vita degli utenti di tali tecnologie, e per sviluppare la competitivita' delle industrie europee del settore.
Il progetto TIDE ha avuto inizio nel 1991 ed e' destinato a svilupparsi sotto l'egida del IV Programma Quadro, il piano quinquennale di Ricerca e Sviluppo della CEE che lancera' i nuovi progetti a partire dal 1995.

TIDE, the European Union Technology Initiative for Disabled and Elderly people, is concerned with Assistive Technology, also called rehabilitation technology. This is technology that is provided in products and services for direct use by elderly and disabled persons in order to improve their daily life in all aspects: living at home, work, leisure, transport, health, education, etcetera. Assistive Technology can take the form of specialised products like hearing aids and wheelchairs. Assistive Technology can also contribute to improving the design of general consumer products and services such that they are better usable by disabled and elderly persons ('design for all'), whereas normally products and services are only designed for 'average' consumer. One of the distinguishing characteristics of Assistive Technology is that it is multidisciplinary, involving technical as well as human sciences.

Assistive Technology can contribute significantly to improving the quality of life of many people in Europe and elsewhere. Many disabled persons are still today effectively excluded from full integration in society. The steady growth of the older population and their increasing demand for continued participation in social and economic life means that there is a huge and growing potential market for Assistive Technology based products and services (60-80 million people in Europe). In addition, Assistive Technology can make a contribution to containing the cost of care, that is to be supported by social security systems.
TIDE stimulates Assistive Technology research and development (R&D) in the European Union, through joint R&D projects involving users, industry, research and other Assistive Technology professionals. TIDE's objectives are twofold:
- improve the independence of living and quality life of disabled and elderly persons;
- improve the competitiveness of the European industry that makes use of Assistive Technology in products and services. These two objectives have equal priority within TIDE. That means that R&D projects should meet a real user need, and at the same time have a sound prospect for commercial exploitation. The R&D work is accompanied by non- R&D activities (horizontal activities) like market studies, standardisation, dissemination of information, creating awareness about the market, etcetera.
The TIDE initiative started with a Pilot Phase in 1991. At that time 21 R&D projects were launched in a wide variety of domains (e.g access to graphical user interfaces by the blind, advanced wheelchairs and robotics, hearing aids, intelligent houses, improved independent living for cognitively impaired persons, etc) with Community Support of 18 million ECU, which is about 50 % of the total investment in these projects. The Pilot Phase was extended in 1992 by 10 projects and a large study into standardisation, legislation and economic aspects, service delivery, industrial structure, training and new technologies.
In 1993 the TIDE Bridge Phase was launched which led to a further 55 projects and horizontal activities, running from beginning 1994 till end 1996, with a total Community funding of 42 million ECU. The areas covered by the Bridge Phase were:
- access to Communications and Information Technology and Support for Interpersonal Communications, such as access for blind people to computers
- control Technologies, such as intelligent wheelchairs
- restoration and Enhancement of Functions, such as hearing aids
- integrated Systems Technologies such as intelligent houses for elderly persons
- horizontal activities, such as market studies and design guidelines.
TIDE will be continued under the umbrella of Telematics programme in the IVth Framework Programme, the 5-yearly R&D plan of the European Union, which is expected to lead to new projects from 1995 onwards.
TIDE has attached a lot of attention in Europe, and it is probably fair to say that it has become a focus for Assistive Technology in Europe. The initiative has an extremely good patrticipation of small and medium enterprises and organisations (74% of all proposers in the Bridge Phase). There is also a good participation of non-profit organisations and public service providers. And recently large industry is starting to show more interest for this field too, motivated by the prospects of the market of the older population. Nevertheless, awareness about Assistive Technology still needs to be stimulated and fragmentation in the market continues to be one of main hurdles to create the true European market for benefit of users, industry and society at large.