Technology for the aging society

Abstract

For humans of all ages, a number of conditions are deemed necessary for a healthy life. As an example, one may consider physical activity. Obviously, there are health limits to the desired amount of physical activity: too little exercise cannot be recommended but too much activity may also be harmful. So physical activity should preferably stay within a certain range there might even be an optimum value for securing optimal health. This range might well become more critical with increasing age. In technological systems, optimum values are usually secured by so called feedback systems, in which any deviations from an optimum value are measured and, automatic action is taken by changing certain parameters which then bring the value of interest back into its desired range. The purpose of the paper is to find an useful framework for integrating research findings and for defining a possible research agenda by assessing potential advantages and drawbacks of such analogy.