Start of the field test

In the past months, the technical teams of CARU AG, University of Applied Sciences Wr. Neustadt and iHomeLab have worked intensively on the new functions of CARU. These were integrated into the system and the CARU devices intended for the field test were updated.

For the start of the field test, participants were selected according to the target group defined by WU Vienna in the study design. In total, 25 people under care and 12 caregivers and concierges are looking forward to using the novel device. The assisted living facilities of bonacasa AG in Switzerland and the mobile care customers of Johanniter Austria in Austria provide an ideal setting for our field test.

The following new functions are available to test participants in the field test and will be tested during the test phase:

Arrival time notification
Users can request the arrival time of the upcoming care appointment or next concierge visit via voice command. In doing so, CARU can calculate the arrival time in real time from the scheduling data of the care service and the current position of the caregiver.

Advanced communication
Users can establish a telephone connection via voice command, e.g. to the central office of the care service or to the service center. If this happens outside of business hours or the call cannot be answered, there is an option to leave a voice message.

Documentation for caregiver
Caregivers or concierges can have a task list read aloud by CARU via voice command. This list is synchronized with the respective nursing stations or with the service center. Once a task is completed, it can be marked as done by the nursing staff or concierges via voice command.

In order to make it as easy as possible for users to understand how to use CARU and how to operate the functions, Schneeweis Wittmann created information material and operating instructions. The main focus of the design was a good readability and the communication of procedures with informative illustrations and a simple user-oriented language. A personal letter welcomes the participants to the project and establishes a link to the people of our research project.

The informational materials were packaged and distributed to participants along with the CARU device. It was possible to install all devices in the apartments and set them up without any problems.