A faithful companion in the everyday life of older people and a lifeline in an emergency: this is the Smartstick, an intelligent walking aid with an integrated locating function. If the user falls, help can be organised immediately.
Find out more about the innovation from Münsterland on this page.
Ossenberg GmbH from Rheine is one of the leading German manufacturers of forearm walking aids, hand sticks and orthopaedic aids. With a team of more than 80 qualified employees, Ossenberg exclusively supplies the specialised trade.
Deutsche Telekom AG is Europe's largest telecommunications company with headquarters in Bonn.
People in Germany are getting older and older - and also more mobile. But the risk of older people falling increases, especially when they have health problems, often precisely when they are alone at home or out and about. Almost a third of 65-year-olds fall once a year, and among the over-80s it is already around 40 percent. Relatives are not always on the spot and can help quickly.
In addition, it happens time and again that people with dementia, for example, set out with a destination - but then do not reach the destination or can no longer find their way back home due to temporal or spatial orientation difficulties. In order to be able to travel safely in old age and to protect people with dementia from wandering around until they are exhausted, walking aids with additional functions can provide support.
The companies Ossenberg GmbH, cibX GmbH and Deutsche Telekom AG have taken up this challenge and produced an innovation in the field of walking aids: the networked walking stick Smartstick. The lightweight and height-adjustable everyday aid scores with its integrated electronics. Thanks to the built-in GSM modem, the GPS antenna and a Deutsche Telekom SIM card, the walking stick and thus its user can be located anywhere in Germany and Europe.
If the user presses the button for about five seconds, he or she triggers an alarm and his or her contacts are notified. The smartstick thus serves as a faithful companion in everyday life and as a lifeline in an emergency.
The Smartstick has been successfully sold since 2019. The idea was also further developed and transferred to a next product: In cooperation with the company Topro, MOBI was created, a mobile locator unit for all rollators, e-scooters and wheelchairs. The locator with alarm function weighs only 100 grams and can be easily and flexibly attached to a rollator, for example. In this way, the location can be determined to within a few metres via GPS.
As a regional joint initiative, Enabling Networks Münsterland supports companies and universities in the Münsterland region in developing innovations, implementing them and finding the right partners for the project. In order to show how innovative and at the same time cooperative Münsterland already is, the project also went in search of innovative cooperation projects from the region. The results are presented on this page. The Enabling Networks Münsterland project is funded by the European Union and the NRW Ministry of Economics as part of the ERDF call "Regio.NRW".
