Relevance and perspectives of AAL in Brazil

Population aging has been taking place in many countries across the globe and more recently in emerging countries. In this context, Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) has become one focus of attention, including methods, products, services, and AAL software systems that support the everyday lives of elderly people, promoting mainly their independence and dignity. From the perspective of computer science, efforts are already being dedicated to adequately developing AAL systems. However, in spite of its relevance, AAL has not been properly investigated in emerging countries, including Brazil. Thus, the contribution of this paper is to present the main perspectives of research in AAL, in particular in the area of software engineering, considering that the Brazilian population is also subject to the aging process. The main intention of this paper is to raise the interest of Brazilian researchers, as well as government and industry, for this important area.