CO-HUMANICS - Co-Presence of Humans and Interactive Companions for Seniors

Goal of the project

A central need of people is an independent lifestyle in regular social interaction with others. The technology research aimed at in the CO-HUMANICS project is to contribute to fulfilling this need as comprehensively as possible, even in times of pronounced individualization, spatial separation from relatives and friends, and an aging society.

The CO-HUMANICS project is concerned with basic and applied research on technology-supported social co-presence. Such co-presence can be realized by augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR) techniques and by robot-based telepresence, in which spatially distant persons are virtually present in a person’s real environment.

The project follows a user-centric design approach, to ensure that the needs and prior experiences of all types of users envisaged are reflected over the whole project duration.

The project is carried out by five research groups of TU Ilmenau and has started on June 1st 2021.

The CO-HUMANICS project is supported by the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung within the framework of the "Durchbrüche 2020" program (https://www.carl-zeiss-stiftung.de/german/programme/durchbrueche-2020.html), with funding of up to 4.5 million euros over the next five years. The Foundation considers itself to be a partner for people engaged in visionary and outstanding academic work in the fields of natural science and engineering. Basic research and application-orientated science are equally important to it. The goal is to create an open environment for scientific breakthroughs in both disciplines. Founded in 1889 by the physicist and mathematician Ernst Abbe, the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung is one of the oldest and largest private science-promoting foundations in Germany. It is sole owner of Carl Zeiss AG and SCHOTT AG. Its projects are financed from the dividend distributions of the two foundation companies.