The first 120 homes equipped with digital assistance are now operational in Wallonia, the regional Minister for Social Action Christie Morreale announced in a press release on Thursday.
Digital assistance services are designed to help people that have reduced mobility due to age or disability.
To support its ageing population, Wallonia has launched a €34.7 million project to install 15,000 digital assistance devices by 2026. The project is part of Wallonia's post-pandemic relaunch plan.
“Not only does this innovative project help the elderly or people with disabilities on a daily basis by enabling them to remain in their own home, it also creates jobs and promotes technological and economic development in Wallonia,” Morreales stated.
According to the project's mission statement, the digital assistance service uses artificial intelligence: sensors are connected to a device that analyses the pace of a person through machine learning software.
An alert is triggered in case the software detects anything abnormal. It can even call a relative, if necessary. The Walloon government reports that this data will be monitored in compliance with privacy standards.
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On Thursday, the first 120 homes equipped with this digital assistance 2.0. have been completed. There are 48 in the province of Liège, 10 in Walloon Brabant, 35 in the province of Hainaut, nine in the province of Luxembourg and 18 in the province of Namur.
A number of people who are losing their autonomy due to age and/or disability are currently testing different technological models.
This first stage of the project will enable the different systems to be compared and adapted. The next stage, which will begin this summer, will see more than 5,000 smart devices installed by 2024 in the homes of elderly or disabled people. This figure will then rise to 15,000 by 2026.
