Assistive Technologies for Older Adults in Urban Areas: A Literature Review

Assistive technologies have the potential to address problems that older adults encounter when living alone. However, challenges arise when technologies are embedded into urban areas, e.g., restrictions emerging from networking structures, which potentially influence the success of implementing technologies. The development of such technologies requires the consideration of urban structures, including architectural and spatial environments as well as social factors. The goal of this contribution is to analyze the impact of Ambient Assisted Living systems on urban areas and point out challenges for future research. We investigated literature on assistive technology of the past decade, focusing on their potential application in urban areas, and propose a set of categories to classify the extracted approaches. While many contributions support individual users or social interaction, few consider urban structures. Future research is explored, with challenges emerging from novel network technologies, market uptake or adaptation, and the support of social neighborhood structures.