Naidex South 2011 – research papers, granny annexes & robots

Yesterday, I donned my Healthy Back Bag  (trying to walk the walk!) and took myself off to Naidex South, the largest independent living show in the South.

Naidex South was held at ExCel, not my favourite venue as it involves a trip to Docklands which notwithstanding the hype to the contrary is not really within easy reach of the City. And ExCel is expensive to reach by taxi, the only sensible option for some for some of my friends with restricted mobility.  

That niggle apart, it was a well organised if slightly smaller event than I was expecting. Whether this is because of the financial climate or the fact that this is the little sister to the flagship Naidex National held in Birmingham, it was not clear.

But Naidex of whatever variety is a good opportunity to meet up with friends and colleagues and to see what new products and innovations are being introduced to the independent living market.

My main reason for going yesterday was to attend the launch of “Raising the Standard”, the final report of a feasibility study for a much-needed scheme to rate, assistive technology. The project partners are Years Ahead Partnership and Newcastle University.  More details about this important study HERE.

I also managed to catch up with Denise Stephens from on-line design community, Enabled by Design and to say hello to Duncan Edwards who was doing a roaring trade selling the innovative and groundbreaking Trabasack. I also met up with Richard Child, a product designer fresh out of Falmouth University, who has very impressively just set up his own company, Hymid R&D  to bring one of his healthcare designs to market.

There were a number of new products and innovations which caught my eye.

iHus Access is a new company which specialises in the design, construction and delivery of bespoke timber-framed living spaces – instant granny annexes which are made in their factory and then installed in the garden. I will be writing more about this interesting new product in a later post.

Disabledgear.com is a free-ads website for the buying and selling of second hand equipment. Really useful if you are caring for an elderly relative and need more equipment or indeed a way to dispose of specialist equipment if you are clearing the home of an older relative.

Finally, the University of Hertfordshire were showcasing their work on the use of robots as therapeutic “toys” for children at the middle to lower end of the autistic spectrum who have little ability to communicate with the outside world. The team have been using KASPAR, an interactive minimally expressive humanoid robot, as a social mediator which has the potential to relieve autistic children’s sense of isolation. Fascinating. I should say that the project needs more funding to take it to the next level. For more information, contact Dr Kerstin Dautenhahn, Professor of Artificial Intelligence – k.dautenhahn@herts.ac.uk  

I had been looking forward to the Independent Living Show Home but whilst the organisers had made the best use of what they had, this part of the exhibition was fairly limited in what it showcased and I was not the only one to leave disappointed.  With the right input and investment, this could be one of the jewels in Naidex South’s crown in future years.