“Smarthome Features as a Service” for Older Adults

technologist-holding-the-hand-of-an-older-adult-and-helping-her-to-use-the-controls-for-a-smart-home-in-the-style-of-pointilism

Longevity Explorers have reported on how they have used different smarthome features to improve the quality of life of people with vision impairments, people with hearing difficulties, people with limited mobility, and people facing early cognition impairment — as well as people who just find these new capabilities “fun” and “useful”. However, at present there is a “barrier” to widespread adoption of smarthome features that can benefit older adults — the fact that most of the interesting applications require an element of Do-it-Yourself (“DIY”) capability.

We believe there is a big opportunity to broaden the deployment of these empowering smarthome features to others — by using a “smarthome features as a service” model. This Article explains our thinking, and describes a pilot project we are considering in partnership with one of the Villages in Northern California.

Needed a Large Clock Due to Vision Loss

Day Clock App

A number of my relatives need a “special” clock, for a variety of reasons. I set out to find them one, but both the physical and app versions I found fell short of what we needed in various ways. So, … I developed a special “Time Clock App”. The Need for a Special Clock My … Read more

Aging in Place: Why Technology & Gadgets Matter

Aging in Place Technology and Gadgets

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.

Gerontech Products We Wish Existed

Gerontechnology Innovation

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”.

Scams & Older Adults: What to Do?

Scams and Seniors

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.

Elderly Scams: When You Need to Take Control

Elderly Scams: Taking Control

What to do when a parent shows signs of falling for “scams” — and seems unable to take the appropriate actions to avoid them? While it is often appropriate to let older adults worry about their own “scam-proofing”, there are some situations in which an intervention is appropriate.

How to Avoid Scams and Defend Against Them

How to Avoid Scams

Here are some very specific actions you can take to avoid the sort of scams that impact older adults. This article also includes some easy-to-follow “spam avoidance rules”.

How Scams Work (with Examples)

How Scams Work

Learn how scams work, with examples. Because, the best protection against exploitation by scammers comes from having a general understanding of how people try to con the elderly into sending/wiring them money or worse, giving them the electronic keys to their financial kingdom.

If you understand your vulnerabilities, you will be alert to situations that put you or an aging parent at risk.

Dealing with a Wandering Loved One with Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer's Wandering

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.

DIY Technology Solutions to Things Bothering My Aging Relatives

DIY solutions

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.