Discovery Wide Angle: Sensor Gloves Help Light the Way for the Elderly

April 08, 2009

As Europe's population ages, more and more research, and money, is going toward finding ways to help the elderly feel better, and take care of themselves, for longer. It turns out that light and lighting can play a huge role in the health of older people. It can affect sleep quality, changes of mood and cognitive performance. And so the European Union has given more than two and half million dollars to a project called Ambient Lighting Assistance for an Ageing Population, also known as ALADIN. A group of research universities and companies across Europe are trying to find ways to help older folks' circadian rhythms stay intact. And it revolves around the bio-sensor glove you see here. For this Wide Angle podcast, I speak with Walter Ritter, a research assistant at the University of Applied Sciences Vorarlberg in Austria. He began by explaining how and why light is so important to our health:

It might also help to see a graphic representation of how it works, so here it is.
 (Photo courtesy of Edith Maier. Graphic from ALADIN website)

Comments

[John Lennon]

Hope this research provides some answers