Imagine a bathroom scale that announces your weight and asks how you’re feeling. Or a pillbox that reminds you to take your pills?
The 78 million baby boomers in this country heading toward retirement are generating a demand for more high-tech devices to make life easier as they age.
After all, most of them use the latest electronic communication devices, and depend on computers for business as well as entertainment and information. Their need for technology that serves them now and in the years ahead benefits those of us who’ve already reached silver status.
The talking pillbox and scale are just a few of the products demonstrated in a special section of the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The show also featured a daylong “Silver Summit” devoted to aging and technology.
I caught a brief segment about the Vegas show on a morning TV newscast then cruised the Internet to read about it a bit more.
First things first. They didn’t refer to the 60-plus generation as seniors. They called us “Silvers” … a classier tag that suits me just fine.
Majd Alwan, director of the Center for Aging Services Technologies (www.agingtech.org) led a panel discussion at Silver Summit on the many devices that will be available for our homes to improve quality of life and keep us independent longer.
For example:
Clarity has a C900 mobile telephone with very large buttons, an amplified earpiece and a panic button on the back that automatically dials five preprogrammed numbers to signal you need help. It doesn’t have a camera or play music or any of that fancy-schmancy stuff, but who needs it if you can dial easily, hear clearly and get help in an emergency?
MedSignals has a multidrug electronic pillbox that beeps when it’s time to take medication, says what compartment the pill is in, and displays, on a screen, the number to take. When the compartment is opened, the pillbox repeats the number of pills to take and how it should be take, with food or a large glass of water, for instance. It can be programmed for 28 days by the user, a caregiver or a physician.
It can also be programmed to send a notification to a family member or caretaker if the user forgets to take pills or takes too many.
A study by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy monitored the use of this device. The study concluded folks using this were significantly more likely to take their drugs as prescribed and experience far fewer side effects than before.
This pillbox is not cheap, about $200. For a person who lives alone, takes several medications and has memory issues, it could be a lifesaver.
Tunstall, a manufacturer of weighing devices for commercial, medical and industrial purposes, makes a bathroom scale that sends a signal via Bluetooth to a control box that reads your weight out loud and asks how you are feeling. It can also be linked to devices that measure your blood pressure, oxygen level and other markers of health. The control box records this information so that it can be heard later by a caregiver or family member.
Dakim Brain Fitness computer software offers mental workouts in the form of video games designed for older folks to keep their memories on track and their minds active.
I went to the Web site, www.Dakim.com, and checked out a game sample. Very frustrating since I link to the Internet via an old-fashioned land line and it took forever for the game to download.
I did learn some offbeat facts about famous people but found the word-and-picture game easy-peasy. However, for people struggling with memory loss, these games would entertain and exercise the mind. And, that is the group of folks they were designed to serve.
Microsoft has developed Windows software that allows you to zoom in making words larger and easier to read. Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft have a joint project called Senior PC. These are computers designed for seniors who have little or no computer experience. They come with software that simplifies all the basic tasks: e-mailing, word processing and Internet use. And isn’t it about time for that?
There were also many versions of the personal “lifeline” systems that you wear as a bracelet or neck piece. A simple press of the alert button and help is summoned in the event of a serious fall or accident or, worse yet, a stroke or heart attack.
We have friends who refuse to have a computer or a cell phone. They’re not interested in learning how to use one more newfangled thing. I think we have to be wiser than that. The more we read, learn and make technology work for us, the better our lives will be.
All of us want to live in our own homes and remain independent. If technology makes that possible, then this Silver says, “Bring it on.”
Linda Bryant Smith writes about life as a senior citizen and the issues that concern, annoy and often irritate the heck out of her now that she lives in a world where nothing is ever truly fixed but her income. You can e-mail her at ljbryantsmith@yahoo.com.
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