Voice assistants made device hardware actually seem smart. By 2018, more technology (and associated improvements) could be found in the Cloud. Besides these invisible upgrades, the voice assistant technology has been continually improving – and if the user could be made aware of those improvements (a BIG IF), they might find them to be very useful. Consider voice-enabled smart plugs, thermostats, audio books, traffic directions, weather, and news updates – and answers to questions that might matter about health, social connection, and personal safety. Today 95 million million US adults have smart speakers and 85% of US adults own a smartphone. Both platforms are now in position to deliver value and benefit to older users -- and thus the opportunity to speak and be heard.
Substantial improvements in voice and AI software will be required to enable the older adult population to fully accept and benefit from the more complex capabilities of smart speakers and voice assistants.
SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LiveFreely, Inc., a Silicon Valley digital health company that develops innovative technology to improve the health and well-being of seniors and their loved ones, today launched BUDDY for Apple Watches. The BUDDY app uses AI and machine learning to predict, prevent, and detect health challenges while providing support and data for seniors and their caregivers.
Pompton Plains, NJ, December 18, 2021 – At CES 2022 Booth #60523 in Eureka Park, Caregiver Smart Solutions is introducing the Aging in Place Core Kit which uses smart sensor technology, the power of Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence, to ease the burden on caregivers around the world. Tiny, non-intrusive sensors track the habits, movement, and patterns to provide family members with reassurance that things are as they should be, all without the use of invasive video cameras or wearable tracking devices.
September 2021 – it got away. But much happened during the month, including the release of the 2021 Linkage technology survey of older adults, rarely fielded and so their tech behavior is poorly understood. Meanwhile, September was a month to consider the business practices of social media monopolist, Facebook – in print (WSJ, Washington Post), on 60 minutes, and as some might say, blah, blah, blah. Will regulation happen? Will people seek a new platform, search for other online photo sites, find an offline hobby, go outside? At this moment, investors doubt anything will change, despite plenty of posturing. Here are the four posts:
AI – it’s everywhere, including tech for older adults. So what is AI? Artificial intelligence (AI) is a wide-ranging branch of computer science concerned with building smart machines capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. AI can use machine learning based on large data sets, and has a number of well-known applications, including recommendations from Netflix, Siri and Alexa, bots and robo-advisors. AI plays an increasing role in healthcare, including the growing use of chatbot tools used by patients. In addition, there are multiple examples of use in the care of older adults. In some cases, these are the result of partnerships, in others from product development. Here are five recent examples leveraging AI, with all information coming from vendor announcements and websites:
SAN FRANCISCO, May 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The United States Patent Office has granted additional patent to BrainofT, Inc., Redwood City, CA d/b/a Caspar.AI. The announcement was made by Caspar.AI CEO and Co-Founder, Dr. Ashutosh Saxena and Dr. David Cheriton, Caspar.AI Chief Scientist and Co-Founder. The company applies artificial intelligence to the senior living market.
August should have been a sleepy month – but no. Multiple interesting acquisitions during August make tech and older adults intriguing. Early in the month, the largest franchised home care company (Home Instead) was acquired by a tech upstart, Honor – to ‘scale up home care’. Connect America, which had already acquired the 'aging and caregiving business of' Philips Lifeline, then acquired a remote patient (RPM) monitoring startup and AI-virtual assistant company called 100plus. Investor interest in age-tech startups is growing, older adults are certainly aging – synergy between these phenomena will certainly follow. The blog posts for August: