Gerontechnology™, the Modelling of Normal Aging

Abstract

Demographics announce the rise of an array of small and bigger challenges, which cannot be taken up adequately by a single research discipline, industrial branche or central administration. The segregation and segmentation of our society causes limiting conditions in facing the most substantial and acute societal problems. The complexity and versatility of these problems require a policy that has to be conceptualized. The concept “gerontechnology” is introduced to cover and provide some coherent elements in order to establish a strategy, that is aiming at an efficient and effective use of essential resources, to match developments induced by an aging population. Normal aging processes can be described within this concept using the man-machine-environment interaction model that is loaded with sets of variables that are characteristic for an aging human function. Sets of variables are distinguished at three levels with increasing complexity from basic research on parameters of aging, via human factors research on grey human factors, to market research on daily consumer needs of the elderly. Two projects are presented as examples of respectively an industrial and a basic research approach in this domain.