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Table 2.1 Life expectancy at birth comparison between more and less developed world regions (in
years)
Area
2000-2005
2045-2050
2095-2100
Entire world
68.7
75.9
81.8
More developed regions
76.9
82.8
88.9
Less developed regions
67.0
74.8
80.8
Data from (United Nations and Affairs 2013 )
2.2.3 Ambient Assisted Living
In developed countries, it has been observed in the recent years a large growth in the
life expectancy of their inhabitants. This trend is expected to expand to the whole
world in the forthcoming years (United Nations and Affairs 2013 ). This is shown in
Table 2.1 where current life expectancy statistics are contrasted against predictions
for the 2045-2050 and 2095-2100 periods. They show the proportion of elderly
people is rapidly increasing and updating the distribution of age population groups.
These changes have a dramatic impact in the way resources and roles need to be
assigned to the various issues that affect the world.
Recent benchmarks in the population structure by main age groups in Europe have
showed that by 2060 the elderly (namely people over 65years) will be near 30% of
its population as opposed to a 17% by 2010 (Eur 2011 ). These numbers represent an
alarming growth of more than 70% of this age group which brings new challenges
to deal with.
People are living longer, primarily due to the enormous advances in medicine
such as the development of new drugs, treatments and equipment. These impor-
tant achievements of humanity are driving us to find alternatives to cope with the
large demand from the expanding aging population. One of the basic needs of the
elderly arises from their places of residence. Many of them live in isolated conditions
and some are distant from the city centers. This makes more difficult their access
to services such as health and social care facilities. We can alleviate these issues
through the exploitation of current technologies. For example, by developing auto-
matic mechanisms for remote monitoring, diagnosis and assistance of people. AAL
plays an important role in this matter as it is specifically focused on finding solutions
to provide independent and healthy living to this population sector. This task can be
supported by the adoption of technologies developed for AmI as these two areas are
closely related.
AAL is not only limited to the elderly but also to people with any type of limi-
tation (e.g. blindness, deafness, and physical disabilities). About 15% of the world
population have some type of disability (WHO 2011 ). This figure shows that there
is a large sector to which AAL can also bring numerous benefits.
AmI and AAL systems need to capture information from the environment and
from the users. In this research, we have centered our efforts in finding mechanisms
 
 
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