Brussels, July 19, 2010: Ray Kurzweil, one of the leading inventors of our time and described as “the restless genius” by the Wall Street Journal, will be attending the Ambient Assisted Living Forum as a keynote speaker from 15 - 17 September in Odense, Denmark.

Ranked as one of the top ten entrepreneurs in the United States by Forbes Magazine and listed among 16 “revolutionaries who made America” by US television channel PBS, Kurzweil was the principal developer of the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first omni-font optical character recognition, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and the first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition.

Ray Kurzweil is the recipient of the $500,000 MIT-Lemelson Prize for innovation and the 1999 recipient of the National Medal of Technology from then-President Clinton, and was inducted into the US National Inventors’ Hall of Fame in 2002. His website, Kurzweil AI.net, has over one million readers. He has received nineteen honorary Doctorates and honors from three US presidents, and has written six books, four of which have been national best sellers in the United States. His keynote address will be moderated by Henrik Føhns, host and editor of the award-winning radioshow Harddisken, which deals with information technology and futurism in Denmark. Føhns received an honorary prize in 2009 for his work in spreading knowledge of new technologies, and his groundbreaking work as a reporter, editor and digital entrepreneur spans over two decades.

Ray Kurzweil will be joined by EU Vice-President and Commissioner for the European Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes, Danish Finance Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen, Chairman of Microsoft Europe Jan Mühlfeit, and Director of the Department of Ageing and Life Course at the World Health Organisation John Beard, as well as other important political, academic, business and civil society figures for three days in Odense, the third city of Denmark.

The Ambient Assisted Living Forum (AAL FORUM) is the yearly conference of the Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme, which aims to invest around €700 million in products and services between now and 2013.

The AAL Joint Programme, funded by 23 European states and the European Commission, aims to use smart technology to give greater independence and dignity to elderly people who are socially isolated, frail, suffer from chronic conditions or have disabilities, developing innovative solutions to deal with such problems as preventing falls and supporting sufferers of dementia. Such applications improve the quality of life of these individuals, keep down the cost of care and open up new market opportunities for Europe's industry and service providers.

The AAL FORUM’s goal is to serve as an information and discussion platform for key stakeholders – investors, researchers, entrepreneurs, policy-makers, industry providers and end users. Its main objective is to find and develop ways to improve the quality of life of elderly citizens through the development of age-sensitive ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). This year’s forum will build on past successes by presenting innovative, smart solutions to tackle the challenges inherent to our ageing societies.

Many exciting projects are planned, including the world’s largest live experiment with ambient intelligence at the premises of Odense Congress Centre. Visitors will also be able to visit the Innovation World expo, the AAL Project Village and the marketplace in the professional exhibition.
The AAL Investment Forum will be held in conjunction with the conference and will bring together investors, entrepreneurs and researchers in a forum where concrete ideas, projects, solutions and funding will be discussed. This unique event will take place from 14 – 15 September, 2010.

For more information on the programme and speakers of AAL Forum 2010 and AAL Investment Forum 2010, please consult: www.aalforum.eu and www.aal-invest.eu, or contact:

Claus F. Nielsen, Chairman of the AAL Forum Committee,
International Manager, DELTA Business Development,
cfn@delta.dk
+45 6116 0974

or

Christina Roosen
AAL Forum Press Officer
christina@newventures.be
+32 487 445 121

The AAL Joint Programme is the world’s largest initiative dealing with ageing populations, implemented by 20 European Member States and 3 Associated States. The programme receives a substantial financial support – based on article 169 of the EC treaty – from the European Commission. The objective of the AAL Joint Programme is to enhance the quality of life of older people and strengthen the industrial base in Europe through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This new funding activity aims to tackle the issue of demographic change and ageing in Europe, which will bring new challenges but also opportunities for Europe’s citizens, social and healthcare systems, industry and markets.

The concept of Ambient Assisted Living is based around solutions:

to extend the time people can live in their preferred environment by increasing their autonomy, self-confidence and mobility,

to support maintaining the health and functional capability of elderly individuals,

to promote a better and healthier lifestyle for individuals at risk,

to enhance the security, to prevent social isolation and to maintain multifunctional networks around individual,

to support carers, families and care organisations,

to increase the efficiency and productivity of resources used in ageing societies.

For more information about the AAL Joint Programme, please contact:

Silas Olsson, Acting Head of Unit, AALA, silas.olsson@aal-europe.eu

+32 (0)2 219 92 25