CETpD
The Technical Research Centre for Dependency Care and Autonomous Living (CETpD) is an applied research and technology transfer centre created for the Universitat Politèncica de Catalunya and the "Fundació Hospital Comarcal Sant Antoni Abat" on behalf of the "Consorci de Servei a les Persones" de Vilanova i la Geltrú, with the aim of covering the demand for research and development in the field of Gerontechnology, Ambient Intelligence, Assistive Robotics and User Experience Technologies. The CETpD carried out important applied research work and innovation on socially relevant developments, especially on technologies and systems designed to enhance independent living of elderly  and disabled people. Areas. Ambient Intelligence. Ambient Intelligence (AmI) implies an environment of distributed computing systems, unobstrusive and often invisible, with user friendly interfaces capable of learning and adapting to the particular needs of the users. CETpD AmI projects are included in the assistance field mainly for housing and health application. We are looking for technological solutions that have the potential to include everyone, that are affordable and build trust and confidence directed to improve the quality of life of any person specially elders and disabled. Assistive Robotics. The priority lines of work are three: Usability. The purpose of the  user experience field, usability, is to provide relevant information about users expectations, capabilities and preferences, in order to ensure that products and services would meet end users -and other stakeholders- functional and affective needs. All the CETpD projects incorporates user's experience feedback in the process of contextual product and services development. Balance, Gaits and Falls. Gait alterations, balance alterations and falls are major causes of disability in the elderly population. Such pathologies seriously impair elders' quality of life; furthermore, their consequences have high economic and social impact. Therefore, clinical and epedimiological studies on these pathologies are conducted at the  CETpD in order to gain insight into their causes and to find novel therapeutics. Gerontechnology. A major objective in geriatrics is to maintain elderly persons' independence to carry out their daily life activities and to interact with their environment. In this regard, technology may be an essential tool to facilitate elderly persons' autonomy. At the CETpD, they develop technology aimed to their environment, as well as remote diagnosis devices designed for early detection of health alterations in frail persons or persons living alone.