Remote monitoring

CES 2018 is off to a noisy, rainy and motion-filled start.  The Intel dancing drones, the Aptiv Self-Driving rides, Google’s soaked outdoor booth ("Alexa, make it rain"?) and Amazon somewhat smaller-scale "magical experiences." It virtually never rains in Las Vegas – and hasn’t for 121 days – but there’s the video of the downpour -- and Google employees bailing out the booth. The big headline for CES is the battle of the voice assistants for the smart home – which includes Samsung’s Bixby – go ahead, talk to your TV and refrigerator -- as well as Alexa, Google, and Microsoft's Cortana.  

2017 was an interesting year -- 2018 should overcome a few obstacles.  Probably the most significant innovation during 2017 was the growth of the Voice First technology market -- but judging by the aisles of gadgets in places like Best Buy, everything else is changing as well. CES is next week, and with it more speakers, TVs, and gadgetry than is seen in Best Buy or anywhere else during the year.  But even as technology leapfrogs and crawls forward, obstacles to broad adoption for older adults remain. Hopefully interest in mitigating social isolation among older adults will lead to the role technology could play. But to make a real difference, here's a look at five areas for improvement in 2018:

It is the time of convenience – and of non-stop hacking into everything.   Consider these 41 hacks (through October 2017!) in health care.  And these 791 in banking (through July, 2017!). And then there’s Equifax – 143 million accounts, established presumably to protect, not misuse, your social security data.  And what’s the worst that can happen? Identity theft – costing consumers $16 billion in 2016.   Yet consumers trust Amazon, sellers not so much.  And they trust both Amazon and Walmart as possible providers of drone deliveries, with only 41 percent concerned about air traffic safety – presumably fear of too many drones in the air – as their hot food is delivered.  But the drone, presumably would drop off the food outside the home. And Amazon has filed patents on drone delivery. What’s next?  Deliveries inside the home? Uh, yes. As with self-driving cars, media hype combined with consumer naiveté are, as always, regrettable enablers.