LAK Project

LIVING FOR ALL KITCHEN

LAK is an industrial research and experimental development project co-funded by the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and promoted by a group of companies and regional research centers led by Snaidero Rino Spa.

The goal of LAK is to experiment and integrate new domotic technologies within the kitchen environment, to make it more livable, especially for elderly people or those with mild cognitive disabilities. Starting from the needs of this specific type of user, and applying design-for-all design logic that respects the specificities of each individual, the project will study solutions to improve the quality of life at home in terms of safety, comfort and energy saving. The innovative home automation components that will be studied and developed during the project concern in particular systems for the management and control of the different functionalities of the kitchen, which will become a sort of technological platform from which it will also be possible to monitor the functionality of all the other domestic systems.

Through a single interface, the user can monitor, for example, energy consumption, the lighting system, air quality and the safety of the entire home environment, also reducing the risk of domestic accidents. In addition, a connection system will be designed with an external Operating Center to remotely access services of various uses, health care and socialization. LAK will experiment with new solutions and develop new knowledge in the field of home automation using the most advanced technologies for data management and communication.

The different components will be integrated through a multi-standard home automation network into a kitchen-environment prototype that will act as a platform for testing and validation. In particular, the use of the hood will be tested, a device present in almost all kitchens, as a technological device for controlling the network, and a control and user interface station will be set up to and from the home and the outside world, which can be mobile or fixed. The prototype will then be used for the validation, testing and final testing phases, which will be carried out directly involving the end users according to technical-scientific validation protocols capable of measuring the technical and functional performance of what has been achieved.

The final industrial idea is not to create a purely technological product and therefore only measurable in terms of technical performance, but a new concept of environment-kitchen able to ensure an improvement in the quality of life of people in an objective and measurable manner in terms of reliability, security and usability.

An interesting aspect of research and experimentation will consist in the validation "in the field" of the conditions, also in terms of new business models for companies, so that the experiments carried out can subsequently become a product to be industrialized and engineered, on which to base further growth industrial and competitive of the participating companies.