How do you solve a problem with Alexa? For older adults striving to age in place, voice-command devices like the Amazon Echo might help remove some barriers. It’s just one of the new and emerging technologies that can allow seniors to stay in touch with loved ones, access transportation more readily, keep up with appointments and diminish the hazards of falls.
[See: 8 Cool Uses for 3-D Printers in Health Care.]
For adult children living at a distance, sensor-based and other technologies could increase their feeling of security about parents living alone. Here are some senior-friendly tech devices to watch for.
Voice Companions
Staying in touch with adult children, grandchildren or friends from afar — not just hearing their voices but seeing their faces — isn’t always as simple as it seems. Older adults who grew up with landlines and phone booths don’t necessarily have the know-how to hop onto FaceTime or Skype.
Some seniors might not be aware of differences between choices in virtual personal assistants that can follow commands. The Amazon Echo has Alexa incorporated in the speaker, which sits in a room and listens to your requests. Apple’s Siri is located on your iPhone or IPad, and so is more portable.
Both Alexa and Siri answer basic questions, but Alexa is incorporated with Amazon, so you can more readily make purchases on it. Alexa may be easier for inexperienced users, as it is completely verbal without the need for pressing buttons. Virtual personal assistants offer a simple new way to make voice calls, or for users with Amazon’s Echo Show device, video calls as well.
Older adults can benefit from voice command devices as organizing and communication tools, says William Kearns, president of the International Society for Gerontechnology and an associate professor with the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences at the University of South Florida.
The AARP Foundation is running a pilot program to explore how hands-free, voice-controlled technology might help reduce or delay isolation — and its negative impact on health — among adults over 60. The project has distributed 100 Amazon Echo devices to older adults living in senior housing communities in Baltimore and the District of Columbia. Residents learn how to use the devices through in-person workshops and at-home visits.
“We see older adults are eager to learn and use new technologies but need additional support at the onset in order to build confidence and troubleshoot problems as they arise,” says Emily Allen, senior vice president of programs with the AARP Foundation. “For many, voice-controlled technology is providing them their first experience in using the internet and is giving them open access to information that is less intimidating than using a computer or smartphone.”
Feedback from the pilot study suggests participants feel less lonely with Alexa. According to the AARP Foundation, participants have made comments such as: “I like it because she keeps me company since I lost my wife. She is someone to talk to,” and “If I am low in spirit, I will ask her to tell me a joke to brighten my day.”
[See: 14 Ways to Protect Seniors From Falls.]
Virtual Caregivers
“Alexa is a revolutionary new product,” says Stuart Patterson, co-founder and CEO of LifePod Solutions, a tech startup in Boston. But for seniors and their caregivers, having a virtual assistant that does what the senior tells it to isn’t enough, he says. That is where his company’s “virtual caregiver” comes in.
Expected to launch in 2018, the LifePod virtual caregiver would enable a three-way relationship among the user, the device and the caregiver. With the virtual caregiver, Alexa’s skill set would be expanded to allow the device to initiate dialogues and services, without waiting for a user command. Using a smartphone app, caregivers, such as family members or professionals, could configure and control the device as well.
LifePod is also planning to integrate sensor technology with Alexa-like voice capabilities to improve fall detection, Patterson says. LifePod could not only detect falls in new ways, but start a conversation with the elderly person, asking if he or she is OK. If not, a preconfigured chain of events would follow, starting with an alert to the senior’s caregiver and if needed, ending with a 911 call.
With simple virtual dialogues, reminders for medical appointments could serve multiple purposes, Patterson says. In addition to prompting people to get ready, LifePod would offer to arrange transportation via Uber or Lyft. For caregivers, he says, “You’re actually doing a check-in. Because if they say something like, ‘Oh, I’m not feeling well,’ or if they don’t respond, then LifePod can probe and try to help.”
Driverless Cars
Self-driving cars can put seniors with reduced vision back on the road, restoring their transportation independence. That future is quickly approaching. Autonomous vehicles were on display at the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics World Conference, held last July in San Francisco.
Driverless cars could reduce isolation among seniors who’ve stopped driving because of physical limitations such as slower reaction times, impaired hearing or severe arthritis pain, conference panelists said. These vehicles could also serve seniors with neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease or mild cognitive impairment.
Someday, when driverless cars become the norm, families might be spared painful discussions about aging parents relinquishing their car keys. Instead, a parent may hear, “Look, Dad, here’s your new self-driving car.”
[See: 7 Ways Technology Can Torpedo Your Health.]
Personal Emergency Response Systems
Pendants that seniors can use to summon help if they should fall have a basic limitation — research shows many people who have these devices don’t wear them, Kearns says. Advanced sensor technologies can identify when someone has fallen, he says, by monitoring their location and space.
One such device in the pipeline is the Health Evaluation and Logging Personal Emergency Response system. The HELPER system uses advanced sensing and artificial intelligence to automatically detect falls in the home without the need for a user to wear or manually activate a push-button, says Alex Mihailidis, a professor at the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto.
Machine vision uses cameras to determine what the person is doing, Mihailidis says, employing advanced algorithms to track his or her motion. The system can tell if that person is walking or has fallen on the ground. “The recognition is done without the need for any type of manual intervention,” he notes. “That is, there is no human viewing the collected images, thus preserving privacy.”
The HELPER system should become publicly available within the next two years, Mihailidis says. It would cost about $500 per home.
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Alexa for Healthy Aging at Home: a Bright Idea? originally appeared on usnews.com
