Research and Exploration (Overview and Recent)

Most of our research is designed to help older adults and their families make decisions and choices about topics that impact quality of life as we grow older — choices like which products and services can help older adults live independently for longer, and delay the time at which growing older gets in the way of living life to the full.

In addition, some of our work is designed to help innovators develop products and services that older adults like us will actually want and find useful.

Our recent work is below. To explore by topics, go to Topics & Things.

Most recent

Aging in Place: Why Technology & Gadgets Matter

In my mind, there is a compelling argument that the right gadgets and technology can make aging in place more successful and less expensive. And by more successful, I am thinking in particular of higher quality of life, more autonomy, and less dependence on the kindness of strangers. I don't think this argument gets made much in the media or by the aging services industry though. So here it is.

Read: "Aging in Place: Why Technology & Gadgets Matter"

Featured

Avoid the Perils of Falling

Read the "best of the web" on: Avoiding Falling. Our team of clinicians and citizen analysts has scoured the web for the best available answers to a set of questions designed to help you make falling less likely, and make the consequences if you do fall less bad.

Read: "Avoid the Perils of Falling"

Recent Analysis and Exploration

Smart Bathroom Features for Older Adults

This article covers several smart bathroom features that author Frank Engelman has found useful for family members or friends — and that focus on challenges of particular relevance to people as they age.

This is part of our Smart Home Features for Older Adults series, in which we share specific recipes and kit lists for individual smart home features — organized on a room by room basis.

Read: "Smart Bathroom Features for Older Adults"

Passive Monitoring: Better Care For My 96-yr-old Aunt

I am the primary caregiver for my 96-year old Aunt who lives alone, a 10-minute drive from my home. I am always looking for ways to help her more, while maintaining a balance between her independence and her “safety”.

I have been trying out a new product that provides “passive monitoring” to help watch over her when I am not there. I liked the product, and this report is to share how I used it, and why it was helpful.

Read: "Passive Monitoring: Better Care For My 96-yr-old Aunt"

Smart Home for Seniors: What, Why?

What is a "Smart Home for Seniors", we wondered? And how is it different from a normal smart home? And who would want one, and why? And, can you just get some specific smart home features relevant to you — in your current house? Or do you need a whole new house?

This article explores these questions.

Read: "Smart Home for Seniors: What, Why?"

Tech Support: Older Adults Explore

The good thing about modern technological innovations — like smart phones, smart homes, computers, video call technology, or telehealth — is that they can improve quality of life in a variety of ways. But tech gadgets are only useful if you keep them working. And today's gadgets often need quite a lot of tech support for that to happen.

In 2020, the Longevity Explorers explored the different approaches to keeping all your gadgets running — especially during the COVID pandemic, when face to face visits are hard or impossible. Here is what we learned.

Read: "Tech Support: Older Adults Explore"

Low Vision Products: Older Adults Explore

The community of Longevity Explorers are exploring different "low vision products" to see which ones help in various situations, and to share products individual explorers have used and wish to recommend. Ever have difficulty reading menus in a dim restaurant, or the fine print on a pill bottle? Or maybe you or a friend have more significant visual issues — like cataracts or macular degeneration — that get in the way of living life as you wish? If so, this article is for you.

Read: "Low Vision Products: Older Adults Explore"

Gerontech Products We Wish Existed

Here are some high-impact, gerontechnology product concepts that do not yet exist as commercially available products — although the technology to enable them already largely exists. Our hope for products like these: to significantly postpone the time at which frailty and functional disability get in the way of "living life".

Read: "Gerontech Products We Wish Existed"

Technology for Older Adults: Notable from 2020

As far as Technology for Older Adults goes, we saw some positive developments emerging in 2020, despite the pandemic, and some promising products gaining traction. Here are trends and products we think are notable from 2020.

Read: "Technology for Older Adults: Notable from 2020"

Exploring Grandparent Apps

“Once you are a grandparent, almost nothing seems as important as interacting with your grandkids, and helping them and their parents as much as you can.” But, if you can’t visit, or live a long way away, how do you maintain the sorts of deep interactions you long for?

This group of four older adults from the Longevity Explorers thought “there should be an App for that”, and set out to explore the space of “Grandparenting Apps”.

Read: "Exploring Grandparent Apps"

Best senior tablet: comparisons, and how to chose.

Best Senior Tablet: How to Choose

This article is about a category of product marketed as senior tablets, or tablets for seniors. We explore which type of person would benefit from a senior tablet, rather than a more mainstream product like an iPad, and how to decide which is the best senior tablet for a specific life situation.

Read: "Best Senior Tablet: How to Choose"

Scams & Older Adults: What to Do?

This series focuses on helping readers of all generations learn the fundamentals of scams, what scammers are after, how they use mail, email, mobile phones, tablets, and personal computers to steal your identity, your money, and even the Internet bandwidth you pay for every month to access the internet.

The information in this series on scams is intended to help you reduce vulnerability to scams for both you and loved-ones like parents, grandparents, etc. The key message is that to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Read: "Scams & Older Adults: What to Do?"

Location Tracking Devices, Trackers for Dementia

Location Devices and Trackers for Dementia

Location Devices and Trackers can play an important role in dementia care and management, as well as for people with mild cognitive impairment. The hope: A location tracking device can help some older adults stay independent for longer, and relieve caregiver stress.

We explore the scenarios in which different types of location devices and trackers for dementia and mild cognitive impairment can be useful, and look at a variety of specific product types and individual products to see which are most suitable in different life situations.

Read: "Location Devices and Trackers for Dementia"

Dealing with a Wandering Loved One with Alzheimer’s

Before my wife passed away from Alzheimer’s, she went through a period of wandering outside the home that I could control with a few simple devices. I want to share what I did, and the solutions I used, in the hope they will be useful for others in the same situation I was in.

Read: "Dealing with a Wandering Loved One with Alzheimer’s "

DIY Technology Solutions to Things Bothering My Aging Relatives

My relatives and their friends are in their 70's and 80's and 90's now, and I am finding they have some recurring "problems" that get in the way of life being as enjoyable as I think it should be. I have come up with a variety of DIY "Tech Solutions" to these problems that I have implemented for them. I hope they will be useful for you too.

Read: "DIY Technology Solutions to Things Bothering My Aging Relatives"

Making TV Useful For My 94-yr-old Aunt

This is about how I took advantage of the ubiquity of TV in the lives of many older adults. By adding various smart integrations, I turned the TV from simply a source of background noise into a useful tool — that helps my 94-yr-old aunt accomplish all sorts of things she previously had trouble with.

Read: "Making TV Useful For My 94-yr-old Aunt"

Surf the Web Like a Pro

There is an infinite cache of brilliant essays, news articles, scientific reports, and books available on the Internet, but you cannot access much of it without giving the website owners something of value in return, unless you master a few simple "surfing techniques".

This installment of "An Internet Enabled Life" will tell you how to quickly hack through the annoying jungle of subscription nags and popup-n-pop-downs and advertisements to get at the actual content you care about.

Read: "Surf the Web Like a Pro"

Virtual Connections to the Tech-Challenged

How do you have rich and engaging interactions with your parent who you can't visit in person? Especially if they cannot, or will not, adopt mainstream consumer technologies.

That's the challenge we are exploring in this article.

Read: "Virtual Connections to the Tech-Challenged"

How to Set Up Alexa Calling for a Loved One

Are you looking for a way to setup video chats with your loved one who lives independently or in a facility? This article tells you how to do that, using the Echo Show, without requiring your loved one to do any of the "setting up".

Read: "How to Set Up Alexa Calling for a Loved One"

Magic Carpet Apps for That

As I mentioned in the introduction to "My Internet Enabled Life, you can see the world while sitting at your PC in your own house or apartment. Here is a list of websites that offer an amazing assortment of places to visit, theater performances to watch, TV series, and movies.

Read: "Magic Carpet Apps for That"

How to Find "Whatsername" After All These Years?

Peter Paul and Mary had a hit single decades ago called “Whats-her-name.” The chorus goes: “I wonder whatever happened to whatshername.” Your PC might help you find not only whatshername, but also whatshisname too. Here is how to do it.

Read: "How to Find "Whatsername" After All These Years?"

View all our Analysis and Explorations

Featured Research

Medical Alert Systems: Help

We kept getting asked "which medical alert system is best?"; and "how do I choose the right medical alert system for me?". This independent, objective, hands-on research tries to answer those questions. If you are looking for a medical alert system, either for yourself or for an older adult such as a parent, this piece of research is for you.

Choose the Right Medical Alert System for YOU

Useful Apps Club

Unlock the potential of your smartphone or tablet to improve your life. The Useful Apps Club is for older adults and Boomers who have a smartphone or tablet (or are thinking of getting one) and need help to turn it into a useful tool. We are focused on finding Apps that can change your life, and teaching you how to use them.

View: The Useful Apps Club

Reduce Fall Risk

View: Avoid the Perils of Falling

Avoid Social Isolation & Loneliness

isolation and loneliness Our community is exploring ways to avoid becoming isolated and lonely as we grow older. See what we are discovering — including one group of older adult's "recipe" for overcoming loneliness.

View: Isolation & Loneliness Hub

Medication Management Tools

medication management tools Poor medication management is one of the key reasons people are forced to stop living independently. There are a wide range of tools that can help you manage your medications — and avoid, or at least postpone, that fate. We have researched which products work best for different types of people, ranging from simple inexpensive pill boxes and reminders to complex "automated" pill dispensers.

View: Medication Management Hub

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Research and Exploration (Overview and Recent)

Most recent

Aging in Place: Why Technology & Gadgets Matter