Intuitive technology
for a healthier society

The challenge of keeping people vital and resilient is more relevant than ever with Covid-19 pandemic fresh on our minds. Holst Centre brings over 15 years of experience in the health domain to the programme on Vitality in the workplace, which demonstrates how intuitive technology can contribute to a healthier society.

Our objective at Holst Centre is to address vitality at work. Healthy and happy employees are better at their jobs; they are more productive and less inclined to leave the company. By supporting people in their daily life environment, you can improve workflows and increase efficiency. So, on top of the physical and mental benefits of increased vitality there are significant economical advantages for both employees and employers.

The biggest challenge is to tailor the working environment to a specific person: body, mind, work (load) all differ from person to person. Therefore, we need reliable data of someone’s physical and mental state from, preferably, sensors mounted close to the body, instead of on the skin. With our technology, we are able to intuitively embed preventive technology into people’s daily routines. We apply our expertise in body-monitoring solutions to deliver high-quality, multi-sensor data to create invisible, unobtrusive technology that we can integrate into the workplace. The final step is to close the loop and improve someone’s wellbeing and productivity by adjusting the working environment and support the person to a healthier life- and working-style.

A personalised workplace

Let’s take a closer look at the possibilities of integrating intuitive technology to create a more personalised workplace. Air quality, including aspects like particles, temperature and humidity, is constantly measured in real-time so that the smart climate control system based on algorithms can create an optimal, but still generic, working climate. A system of sensors, for instance, that can detect if a meeting room is too crowded, causing more fresh air to be blown in. Smart desk chairs measure your seating position and encourage you to correct your posture. Office lighting that automatically adapts to the current daylight situation and your specific needs, creating an optimal working environment. Even the colour and intensity of the lighting can be adjusted to the tasks and biorhythm.

Workplace Vitality Hub

To put this technology to the test in a real-life working environment, Brainport partners Fontys, imec, TNO, and TUe have created a new partnership, FITT, aimed at making this region not only the smartest, but also the most vital in the world. Vitality and resilience are very relevant topics for Eindhoven’s Brainport region where so many high-tech companies depend on highly specialised knowledge workers. Attracting, retaining and taking good care of employees is a great challenge.

The FITT-partner’s vision on vitality is brought to life in the Workplace Vitality Hub, located in a new High Tech Campus building in Eindhoven (HTC 85). The parties collaborating in the Hub will work together with i.e. (regional) business partners and local governments in researching, developing and testing technologies that make employees healthier. For Holst Centre the Workplace Vitality Hub offers a unique environment to test our innovations and develop new applications. The collaboration with academic partners and commercial enterprises will inspire all parties involved to develop new technologies and design optimal working environments. We intend on using the results of this local project to create effective preventive technology that invisibly and unconsciously becomes part of our daily routine, so that we can all add healthy years to our lives.