iCare—supporting people with increased need for care with smart and mobile IT

The recent developments in the area of mobile computing have fueled the debate on potential applications for independent living, well-being and medical interventions both in the academic field and in practice. A considerable amount of research and development of IT-based assistance systems is focused on clinical applications. However, assistance systems that can be used in everyday life by a broad user group of people with increased need for care are rare. In this paper we present the vision of iCare—a research program to support a safe and independent living of people with special needs. In addition, we exemplarily introduce DeSearch—a privacy-aware sensor-based network to locate missing people—as a first result of iCare.