Gardening in Ambient Assisted Living

This paper suggests to extend the concepts of Ambient Assisted Living, active ageing and ageing in place to the outdoor areas of a home: the garden. We examine the motivations and possible benefits of gardening in the generation 65+, especially in regard to managing health and well-being. From there, we explore technical assistance solutions, thinking them ahead into a dynamically adapting Ambient Assisted Living Garden. We derive a design guideline for the implementation of intelligent AAL Gardens, raising awareness that gardening is a leisure activity which should be supported through ICT, as it is popular in that age group and has been shown to be related to many positive effects. We aim to encourage more research and a practical realization of this empowering technological concept that enables people to live independently at home, doing what they like, without being confined to indoor spaces. (C) 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.