This volume contains an edited selection from more than 260 scientific papers presented at the 2nd International Conference on Technology and Aging (ICTA). The editor's task in compiling selected papers for a post conference publication presents special challenges. Quite apart from the (often delicate) job of deciding which papers are to be included, conference proceedings – whose purpose after all is to document a contemporary perspective of the state of the art in a particular field of science or technology – necessarily offer only a snapshot of an unfolding dynamic plot (the cast members of which periodically return to the limelight at future conferences).

In relatively immature or nascent fields, such as technology and aging, the pace of development is generally swifter than established ones, and conferences snapshots are liable within rather a short time to become as topical as a sepia period portrait. This is no doubt of considerable interest to historians of technology, but probably of dubious value to commercial stakeholders, funding agencies, and policy makers, who demand up-to-the-minute information.

To afford durable relevance to the information the present book contains, we have adopted an alternative approach to the commonly accepted practice of assembling for publication conference papers in the format more or less as originally presented. First, all of the 29 articles contained here are considerably extended versions of selected original conference papers presented at this conference. They have undergone substantial revision compared to the original four-page conference papers, incorporating in most cases new information and results that were unavailable during the conference. Second, we have selected the papers which, not only we editors consider are of significant and enduring scientific interest, but also exemplify best practice in research methodology, particularly in the uniquely multidisciplinary field of technology and aging.

The organization of this book follows roughly that of the thematic sessions at ICTA meeting: Aging-in-Place, Assistive Technology, Monitoring and Telehealth, Transportation and Mobility, and Design.

Since the 1st meeting of the ICTA in 2001, the role of technology in aging-in-place (the topic of this book's first section) has acquired considerably more prominence, capturing the attention of a wide range of scientific and technological disciplines. This is perhaps not that surprising, considering the high prioritization by North American and European governments placed upon aging-in-place solutions as a viable alternative to more costly, and also socially isolating, institutional care. But, necessarily concomitant with successful aging-in-place programs is the implementation of robust and reliable monitoring, assessment and evaluation mechanisms to measure technology efficacy and safety for older people choosing to live independently. In such context, Jakkula and Cook describe how temporal patterns in an older person's daily activities at home, as measured by sensor networks, can be used to predict normal events and identify anomalous ones. Silva, Chau, and Mihailidis in their article share their experience with an experimental automated activity detection system, requiring only a single ceiling mounted camera, which is context-aware regarding unconstrained types of activity in the home. Home sensor networks similarly form the basis of a scalable cognitive and behavioral in-home assessment system developed by Jeffrey Kaye of the Oregon Center for Aging & Technology, and collaborators. Wayne Chung of Carnegie Mellon University and collaborators from Intel Corporation have investigated the influence of various self medication dispensing technologies with respect to compliance among older adults while outside the home. Case studies of basic and instrumental activities of daily living form the subject of articles by Helene Pigot and Axel von Bertoldi and their colleagues concerning cognitive orthotic aids for preparing food with complex ingredients and for hand-washing procedures. Williams, Sabata, and Zolna examine workplace accessibility for older adults with disabilities. Accommodating for agerelated disabilities can significantly improve the effectiveness and productivity of older adults in the workplace, thus influencing employment decisions.

The section on assistive technology (AT) represents arguably the most mature and generic aspect of technology and aging; except that AT can hardly be regarded really as a specific discipline any longer. Assistive devices and systems command an expansive gamut of technological and engineering specialties, drawing upon mechanical engineering and industrial design at one end of the field and cybernetic systems engineering and brain-computer user interfaces at the other. We have chosen three articles for this section whose subject matter and general conclusions relate to a more strategic and general perspective and draw comparisons among disparate technological fields, addressing respectively technical aids for memory, communication, and patient transfer. Massimi and Baecker's investigation into the scope for mobile cellular telephones to function as memory aids for mild cognitively impaired older adults is pertinent for understanding user needs in a market where, currently, people over the age 65 represent one of the fastest growing segments. Keeping with theme of dementia, the efficacy of computer-based aids for initiating and maintaining conversations involving people with Alzheimer's disease has been demonstrated by researchers from the universities of Dundee and St. Andrews, Astell et al., with their CIRCA project. In their comparison of established and novel mechanical hoist sling systems, Dutta, Haliday and Fernie explain that sling design is a critically important issue not only with respect to the patient's welfare, but the caregiver's too. In their paper on peer mentoring of older adults on adoption of new technology, Johanne Mattie and colleagues present a social outcomes perspective. This paper is significant in what it reveals, through extensive focus groups, concerning older people's attitudes to, and order of prioritization of, advanced consumer technology in general and assistive technology in particular. Key pointers have been derived from this project to inform efforts in nurturing awareness among improved take-up by potential users of quality-of-life and autonomy-enhancing technology.

The largest section in the book, on monitoring and telehealth, reveals novel applications of advanced pattern recognition techniques, some of which have, up to now, found roles primarily in the military, process engineering, and financial sectors. Alternative approaches to image processing, to detect posture and gait anomaly, as a diagnostic means for identifying the early presymptomatic stages of Alzheimer's disease and other age-related morbidities, are presented. Edington and Berme apply fractal analysis, while and Prinz et al. are investigating spatio-temporal analysis techniques of Motion Energy and Motion History in image processing. For applications of monitoring for older person support, Meredith Rowe and co-investigators at the University of Florida report on the results of a 12-month pilot of a nighttime safety monitoring system for home use by people with cognitive impairment. The paper by Jimison and Pavel describes their investigation into cognitive health coaching, provided within the context of a general and scalable framework that is independent of particular electronic health record systems. The challenges involved in acquiring continuous data on older subject behavior using home sensor networks is discussed by Hayes et al. The main problem identified by the authors is the interpretation of the very large volumes of data in real time and they propose a solution based on statistical process control. Domestic service robots continue to attract considerable media attention. Michaud et al. report on their application of robots to provide in-home telepresence support to caregivers. Issues of autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance remain key issues, as well as does acceptance by the older person at home. Sanford and Hoenig present their conclusion following a study into the comparative efficacy of delivering home-based physical and occupational therapy respectively through traditional home visits and telecare services. Kearns and More are exploring how the latest generation of wideband RFID devices can be exploited to study aimless peripatetic behavior, and enhance the environmental safety, of persons with dementia living at home.

Transportation and mobility still represents by far the largest and most commercially lucrative market segment of technology for seniors. There is however a clear trend towards synthesis of information and communication technologies (ICT) and mobility technologies, which is embodied in the latest developments of automatic collision avoidance and full or semi-autonomous navigation functions in powered mobility devices. For interesting approaches to the engineering and design challenges involved see in particular the articles by Viswanathan et al. and Gomi, which recount their respective work on the development of intelligent wheelchairs. Loss of balance and falls, acknowledged epidemic cause of morbidity and fatality among older people, are the subject articles on novel analysis techniques and interventions. Scovil et al. describe an audio-visual cueing system for stair or ramp handrails. Snoek et al. employ motion analysis and event classification algorithms to predict the statistical likelihood that a stair descent pattern is normal or anomalous. Cheng et al. present the results of a parametric analysis of a walking frame's ability to prevent loss of balance, in which the authors compared the perturbation responses in stance and gait for two alternative walker designs. The final article of this section, by Park et al., explores the comparative performance of driving simulators for predicting driving behavior and safety respectively among older and younger adults. The study is underpinned by independent analyses of self reporting and accident/traffic violation citation data.

The last section is dedicated to design issues. Stone and Mather have coined the term ‘Included Design’. They propose that designing for the special needs market before making a design as inclusive as possible to the mainstream market is a viable alternative to the currently accepted notion of inclusive design, provided that aesthetics are appropriately addressed. The contribution by O'Brian, Rogers and Fisk explains how the performance of routine computer tasks by older people is influenced by the design of input devices. A virtual keyboard allowed the authors to independently examine design features shown previously to affect individual task components (namely movement and visual search), assess the text entry task in the target context, and investigate specific design features that might facilitate more natural and effective performance following different levels of practice. Horwitz and Pentland in their article, emphasize the critical importance of user participatory design, especially involving selfcare patients. They introduce the “Cauldron of Thought” technique for achieving optimal and creative design solutions. Finally, Adlam and Orpwood present preliminary conclusions regarding open standardization for off-the-shelf infrastructure components in smart homes designed for older people with dementia. The authors point out that many commercial infrastructures continue to be developed upon proprietary standards, which impedes innovation by third party device manufacturers.

If there is an overall theme connecting the majority of the articles surveyed above, the reader probably will have noticed this to be ‘coping with cognitive decline’, despite there being no section of the book dedicated to this subject. This is the all the more interesting, considering that addressing dementia was never a criterion in selection for the book; and herein lies an apparent trend where the focus for research and development in technology for aging is inexorably converging upon issues of coping with cognitive decline. One might easily conclude that this is because dementia has emerged as the prototypical disability of aging in this century, but it is not actually the case; other age-related morbidities have considerably higher prevalence and incidence. To be sure, as life expectancy increases, there will be people who develop dementia. But what we believe places it so prominently in the sights of gerontechnology researchers and developers is the social shift from institutional to home-based care, in which information communication technology based solutions now afford the possibility of aging-in-place for the many thousands of people having mild to moderate cognitive impairment. This is a salutary lesson for workers in our field to ponder during the years leading up to the next meeting of the ICTA.