The Fit4Work project aims to develop an innovative easy-to-use and unobtrusive system that will support older workers in reducing and managing physical and mental stress resulting from their occupation. The system will provide ambient ways of monitoring physical and mental activities at work. Smart algorithms will provide context-sensitive personalized recommendations for adjusting the workplace and behavior at work, as well as define mid- and long-term lifestyle plans to meet the demands of the work taking into consideration the worker's age.
The Fit4Work system will be built from state-of-the-art components currently present in the market. It may be imagined as a smartphone extended with sensor-packed wearable device connected with a smart workplace environment and with external services immersed in the cloud. The smart application running in this environment will be thus capable of monitoring parameters vital to personal fitness, detect harmful conditions and propose personalized reinforcement plan. It will be able to identify a range of problems related to working conditions that pose particularly acute problems for older workers. The system will be designed as a flexible platform capable of supporting most, if not all, work scenarios. The primary target group for the pilot include individuals aged 55 and over in the sector of health and social work. The pilot will include three diverse groups of users in the Netherlands and Poland (formal and informal carers, and tele-assistants).
Through its unobtrusive and unique integration of advanced software and hardware components, the Fit4Work system will enable persons aged 55 and over to be healthy and maintain good functional capacities for work. In this way the project answers the need to facilitate continuation of professional careers, making ageing workers aware of possibilities of better transition into 'golden years' of their work span and prepare enterprises to develop their work environments with age-related issues incorporated into the frame of their business.