Tech announcements spew forth, fast and furiously – but most do not help older adults. Stay tuned and hopeful if you can, to the hundreds of announcements that will pour forth in the coming weeks from CES 2017 – hopefully a number of them focused on or at least interested in the care and/or services related to an aging population – and yes, according to the CDC, if one lives to age 65, life expectancy is unchanged. In the meantime, let’s reflect on 2016, which saw the rise in awareness of future caregiver shortages, shortages in family time, but not shortages in investor money:
"Amazon’s Alexa Voice Service and voice assistants in general have been a subject of interest for many of our clients looking to explore how they could extend their brand and the usefulness of their products or solutions with voice interaction. While exploring this possibility with one such client, they proposed a concept that would use Alexa to help the elderly and people with chronic illnesses live more independent lives. Out of this idea sprung LifePod, an Alexa voice-enabled device that acts as a virtual caregiver and digital assistant.
Tel Aviv – July 11, 2016 – Essence, a leading provider of IoT, cloud-based connected living solutions, demonstrated its new Care@Home Voice Panic Detector last month at a series of global telecare and security events. The VPD is the first product in the industry to employ voice recognition technology to give seniors two-way access to emergency response via a simple vocal command.
