The current status and future potential are discussed in the new report The Future of Sensors and Older Adults from Aging and Health Technology Watch. The report is based on interviews with experts from 26 organizations across healthcare, senior living, and technology. As an aging population faces a dwindling care workforce, sensor technology is emerging that can assist organizations that provide care and help older adults to maintain independence. A fragmented market today is comprised of environmental, safety, health and movement technologies that capitalize on and extend the Internet of Things (IoT). These sensors already enable recording and deployment of AI to inform about status and predict future changes.
Over the next five years and beyond, the care industries will make more effective use of sensor technologies, and benefit from device compliance with standards. We will see expansion of Wi-Fi access in senior care. The introduction of ‘Edge computing’ in which device data is analyzed closer to the user. Older adults will benefit from the ubiquity of voice, AI and camera technology in their home/residence of choice. The cost of care will be rightsized – matching care capacity and improved wages for workers. And increasingly, insurers and care providers will include the role of sensors in the standard of care.
