A virtual village network architecture for improving the elderly people quality of life

Elder people often feel pushed to the margins by the generational shift and suffer from loss of identity and hence they lose motivation, recognition and self-esteem: they are often considered to be no longer capable of performing any service. This paper proposes an ICT network architecture oriented to improve the quality of life of elderly people and their caregivers focused on the user need satisfaction and reducing negative feelings like insecurity, vulnerability, loneliness and depression. This Virtual Village Network architecture is organized on 3 levels: 1. the Virtual Service Centre (VSC) that, through a proper home interface, carries out the support, the monitoring, the prevention and the social facilitation; 2. the Intelligent Domotic Health Networks (DHN) a domotic modular network with high local evaluation ability through which the VSC can monitor the home and/or the user's state of wellness and of health; 3. the Dynamical Village Network (DVN) that is an ICT network of users. The idea is to build an ICT network of "virtual social neighbours" facilitating user relationships, able to have positive influences on the interactive abilities and self-image of the elderly, and to prevent or overcome solitude, isolation and their negative effects on the elderly person's overall quality of life and health. The whole architecture is pervaded by strict attention paid to security and privacy.