Virtual communities and elderly support

This paper introduces the European IST project TeleCARE that aims to design and develop a configurable framework for virtual communities focused on supporting assistance to elderly people. The main innovative aspects introduced in the design of TeleCARE project and addressed in this paper features its tele-supervision and tele-assistance, based on the integration of multi-agent and federated information management approaches, introducing the concept of federated agency. Federated agencies comprise both stationary and mobile intelligent agents, combined with the services that are likely to be offered by the emerging ubiquitous computing and intelligent home appliances.