Giraff Technologies AB

Address:

Metallverksgatan 8
721 30 Västerås
Sweden

www.giraff.org

Contact:

Stephen Von Rump
Tel. +46 21 124 500
Email: info@giraff.org

Year of foundation:

2009

Number of employees:

7

Keywords:

Robotics for elderly care, social contact, home care, telehealth, Activities of Daily Life, chronic condition management, caregiver network, intensive home care environment, environmental sensors, physiological sensors, intelligent reasoning


Company profile:

Giraff Technologies develops and markets a telehealth platform for home deployment that is designed to extend safe, independent life for elderly living at home and to reduce clinical (re)admissions, reducing overall care costs while supporting a high quality of life. Giraff is part of the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) industry and its standards-based AAL platform supports supervision of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) as well as clinical protocols for chronic condition management and post-acute care in the home. The Giraff AAL platform features the “instant presence” of the Giraff avatar in the home as well as intelligent reasoning logic that provides insight to caregivers regarding the status of a person or the home. The platform is the result of numerous EC projects including the AAL JP ExCITE and VictoryaHome projects, and the FP7 GiraffPlus project.


Products and services:

The basic Giraff system allows a caregiver to virtually enter a home over the Internet and move about freely, interacting via videoconferencing with the resident(s) there just as if they were physically present. This virtual visit requires nothing on the part of the resident except to answer the call via a remote control; the visitor does everything else. The visitor connects to the Giraff mobile device via a computer application called Pilot that is easy to download and install. Once connected he navigates the Giraff by simply moving his mouse around on the video image on his computer, and the Giraff follows his mouse movements in a smooth, intuitive way. The visitor can turn from side to side, look up and down and even “sit” at a table or bedside –all important social cues for the resident, especially if they suffer from any kind of cognitive impairment.


The broader AAL platform combines environmental and physiological sensors with the “instant presence” avatar to create an intensive home care environment. It includes cloud-based secure data storage and dynamically configured user interfaces for family members, professional caregivers and care organization administrators. The platform also includes intelligent reasoning that constantly monitors data and infers specific events or trends in the home or with the person.