The development of supportive environments and Assistive Technology (AT) is a priority recommended by the International Plan of Action on Ageing (Madrid 2002). The first essential matter related to the creation and implementation of a certain Ambient Intelligence (AmI) system is to know for whom it have to be designed, in order to meet user’s profile and needs with the functional capabilities of the intelligent and semi-autonomous assistive device, and to identify the best ways of human-machine interaction. The multiple dimensions of cognitive variability in the elderly make these tasks very difficult. A comparative overview of the cognitive changes in normal and pathological aging could be useful in order to deal with the cognitive variability constraint in the establishment of user profiles and target populations.

Peer Reviewed