Seniors do not benefit from one-off gadget or service inventions

What percent of exhibitors at trade shows survive?  Rant on. It’s not possible to speculate because it is not tracked.  That probably is fine for that gaggle of gadgetry at CES – most acting as trial balloons to test PR-worthiness and buzz.  But what about events whose trade shows are of one-off products or services intended to help older adults? Some events will not allow a small-sponsorship company to be on the show floor, literally placing them in a corner. Consider:  Company B is a startup, not yet a member of a national association. The founder of Company B, CEO B has been too busy inventing a product to line up complementary offerings that could be sold as a solution to a problem. None of the bigger resellers know anything about Company B yet, so the tiny firm takes the corner booth and hopes that on breaks, walking around the floor will generate a business partner or two -- and with serendipity, enable Company B to be part of the solution ABC.

What’s wrong with the serendipitous approach?  Did you ever wonder why you don’t see exhibit hall listings left online to peruse months after the last show? The booth check has been cashed.  The exhibitors came, they saw the attendees and other exhibitors, then they departed, never to be heard of again.  Remember Silver Mother?   The company never figured out how to market a useful sensor-based home monitoring product and now the website says it is ‘out of stock.’  The Floh Club’s tech support for seniors – lasted from 2009 into 2010.  WellCore – consumers will pick up their fall detectors at Best Buy – or maybe not.   In all of these cases, detailed market research in advance was unlikely. The inventor had invented – that was enough. The market was not ready for smart homes in 2016, telephone tech support services for seniors depended on more complex senior tech adoption than had occurred by 2010, and fall detection was a feature of PERS offerings – not a standalone consumer sales hit.  We could go on and mention more of the 90% of companies that fail, just in the senior category, but enough said.

The Internet has made pre-launch market research so much easier – why not do it?  Is it ego?  Our mousetrap is better? Our engineer is smarter? Oh, we were a beloved startup of Amazon’s innovation searches – so we will be acquired by Amazon. Yeah, right that can happen, but more likely, our product will be cloned and forced right out of its market by Amazon.  What would be a more useful strategy in the first place, other than a good lawyer at startup time – “you’re going to demo that where?” For the one-off gadget and service world, taking the time and the effort to identify 3 or 4 previous or current similar products or services is worth the time. 

Map out the full surround of the desired market. Place the proposed startup on a chart that includes innovator track record, solution or go-to-market partners, implementation successes, especially B2B, trade show presence, media articles, multi-stage investment amounts and sources, and exits if any. Making the chart is cheap.  And the chart is an argument for go/no-go decisions – up front and with a supportive but objective board.  Deciding not to proceed can be the best strategy of all. And if all else fails, follow any of the plethora of advice on shutting down.  Do not, please, just disappear like the Cheshire Cat smile – or the Floh Club, where only the press articles and blog posts remain. RANT OFF.

ATTENTION: Are you signed up for the What’s Next Boomer Business Summit in San Francisco on March 28?  Let’s connect at 11:00 on the future of Voice First Technology and Older Adults.

category tags: 

Boomer-Senior Tech Business, CES 2018, Mobile PERS

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/seniors-do-not-benefit-one-gadget-or-service-inventions

2018: What technology matters for older adults?

Technology utilization among older adults grew.  According to Pew Research, smartphone adoption in particular grew among older adults.  Interestingly in a later survey, those with Amazon Echo or Google Home devices and apps used their smartphones less.  Self-driving technology was a big topic in 2017, much of the hype including mention of benefits for older adults.  Still not clear why an Uber driving itself is better than a Lyft or Uber with a driver – unless it is the well-publicized incidents about Uber drivers.

New product introductions stacked up. New product introductions were presented at multiple events, including the following event summaries, most recent first:  CES 2018 (1 of 2) and CES 2018 (2 of 2), Aging 2.0 and GuideWell Innovation, Connected Health in Boston, the arrival of and potential benefit from Virtual Reality, technologies for vision-impaired, Aging 2.0 competition finalists, finalists from IAGG, the What’s Next Boomer Venture Summit, the American Telemedicine Association, and AARP Live Pitch.   I

The emergence of Voice First technology – speech-enabled interactions with technology – marked a big technology change, with the resulting report linked here called The Future of Voice First Technology and Older Adults 2018.  This category promises to deliver more innovative services and offerings for older adults during 2018 and beyond. Voice assistant utilization was surveyed by Pew in December. And a war between the assistants broke out at CES in January, following announcements of how Google Home gaining ground during Christmas.

A year later – time for revision to the Market Overview of Technology for Aging in Place. This annually-updated report will be reviewed during the next few weeks for what has changed; what no longer matters; and what firms, including startups, may matter over the next year to the older adult market segments.  If you have thoughts – please bring them forward about any new offerings in the categories of communication and engagement, home safety and security, health and wellness, learning and contribution, dementia care, home care, and caregiving apps. And if you think categories are missing or no longer matter, please speak up!

category tags: 

vehicle/transportation technology-services, cell phones, smartphones, voice/AI technology

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/2018-what-technology-matters-older-adults

Voice First: What you say should help get what you need

What makes Voice First special for older adults?  This blog has discussed the emergence of Voice First technology -- speech-enabled interactions with technology -- on multiple occasions. But this occasion is different -- it marks the publication of a research effort and resulting report linked here called The Future of Voice First Technology and Older Adults 2018.  Today's blog post offers a short excerpt of key differences between Voice First technology and prior tech generations that apply to all users – but are unique for seniors -- future research will continue to explore that uniqueness. So what has inspired multiple organizations, including Benchmark Senior Living and Carlsbad by the Sea, to begin their programs? They see that while Voice First technology is an early market with some (noted) limitations, it also represents, unlike prior technology generations, benefits for users.  For users and tech managers, Voice First is:

• Easy: Download versions and upgrades are unnecessary.  Patch Tuesday for Microsoft users or iOS update reminders are likely not part of the older adult user experience. But the Amazon Echo Show speaks what needs to happen next after the device is powered on, presenting suggestions and tips in large font. A caveat, however – as the Front Porch users discovered, without any prior technology exposure, some training is required, especially to use features to control lights and room temperature.

• Cheap: Device price war put offering within reach – but is there Wi-Fi?  The Echo Dot and the Google Home Mini are racing for the bottom of Voice First device price ranges.  But they work just as well when spoken to as the largest and most expensive variant. However, Wi-Fi connectivity is a prerequisite – and not a given in many senior communities or private homes.

• Useful: Content can both surprise and impress.  Information behind these devices is a constant surprise and delighter. Jokes and weather, but also: streaming music, audio stories, and news. For the tech-phobic, these interactions represent a disruptive change and an experiential upgrade. Cooking timers, alarms and reminders – “It’s 4:00, Did you take your medication?” are part of the basic features. Note these are not interactions, and other than ‘Stop’, do not yet address what happens if you didn’t comply.

• Smart: Last week’s functionality can be forgotten.  While not the first cloud-based capability, voice first technologies’ update cycles craft a new user experience.  Growing in use, the devices and software increasingly know who you are and can tell you what’s new; remind how functions work; and can be queried and/or trained repeatedly about the same feature – simply by speaking a question. For example, “Alexa, what do you know?”  Or “Hey Google, how do I play music?”

• Connected: Home automation just works.  For the Front Porch participants at Carlsbad by the Sea, the home automation integration was itself a surprising benefit – learning to control the thermostat, connected light bulbs and outdoor camera. The pilot participants marveled that they could turn on lights, change the room temperature and see who was at the door – all without leaving their chairs.

Here is a hope that you will read the research report which was based on 31 interviews with stakeholders and innovators -- and if you can, also come to the What's Next Boomer Summit in San Francisco on March 28th to hear a thought leader panel discussion of the topic and what's up and what's next with Voice First.

category tags: 

voice/AI technology, Seniors, assisted living, assistive technologies, baby boomers, Boomer-Senior Tech Business

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/voice-first-what-you-say-should-help-get-what-you-need

Voice First and Voice Recognition Examples in Senior Care

It’s a piloting world for new voice technology in senior living and care.  But some senior living and service provider companies are experimenting and using for differentiation.  As the Front Porch report and other examples have demonstrated, use of Voice First technologies can engage residents, improve concierge services, reduce unnecessary trips down long hallways for check-ins, enable some home automation actions for turning on lights, managing a thermostat or monitoring entrances.

AARP Foundation and Senior Living. The AARP Foundation recently piloted a program with a senior living facility in the Baltimore area to test whether voice-controlled technologies like the Alexa-powered Amazon Echo can help curb isolation and its associated health effects in seniors. The organization worked with Comprehensive Housing Assistance, Inc., to place Amazon Echo devices in its senior living communities, teaching them how to communicate voice commands to Alexa for everything from turning the lights on and off, medication reminders, and getting news and weather reports. Learn more at Associated.org.

Amazon could take on Home Care. As Amazon looks to possibly capture some of the market share in the pharmacy space, home care providers are keeping watch on the company for other reasons. Coupled with its home-based voice technology, Amazon’s Echo product could easily be paired with home health and home care services to fulfill a number of responsibilities for seniors needing care. And some home care and home health providers are already actively exploring these options, including California-based Libertana Home Health, which tapped Amazon’s Alexa for a pilot study with some of its clients. Learn more at Libertana Home Health.Bottom of Form

Juniper Saves Money Retains Staff.  Products like the Amazon Echo have already made their way into senior living settings, allowing residents to hear the dinner menu or get medication reminders simply by asking for them. But voice recognition also holds promise for making clinicians’ lives easier, while enabling senior living companies to cut costs and improve retention. least, Juniper Communities believes this to be true, based on initial results from a technology pilot with a startup called LexiconAI. Learn more at Juniper Communities.

HoneyCo Smart Home for Seniors. Stringing together an array of smart devices into a home is no easy task for even a moderately tech-savvy individual -- let alone someone enjoying their retirement. HoneyCo, based in Nashville, offers a one-stop shop for the smart home, taking products off the shelf and corralling them into a single, easy-to-use software platform. HoneyCo charges a monthly fee to manage the service. Learn more at HoneyCo Homes.

 

category tags: 

voice/AI technology, Boomer-Senior Tech Business, assisted living, IoT and home monitoring

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/voice-first-and-voice-recognition-examples-senior-care

For seniors, what are the negative impacts from rapid technology change?

Social isolation has grown for the older and/or less tech-savvy segments.  This has been a result of tech replacements that are more difficult to use, whether it is the cost of Wi-Fi connection, excessive device screen sensitivity, screen size, the continuous need for OS upgrades or software updates, many of them security-related as hacker threats grow.  Older adults and those who care about them examine this landscape and wonder what can be done because:

• Cost is too high versus the benefit of technology improvement.  Most people replace their smartphones after 2-3 years – even though the phone life is more like 4.7 years for smartphones and feature phones. But 24 million clamshell (flip) phones sold in 2016, 2 million more than in 2015 – while seniors make up a big percentage of users, others like, $20 price tag, superior telephone call form factor and the long battery life – in contrast to the $800+ smartphone, need for a headset, and daily, if not more frequent, charging requirement.    

• Mobile apps require updates and costly retraining.  Smartphones have spawned more than 2 million apps per for each of Android and iOS. App vendors frequently change them, sometimes to add features, but also to fix bugs. Optional updates are often ignored, which can result in slower performance or falling so out of date with fixes that an actual update is not feasible – or as with the iPad, the vendor declares the device itself to be obsolete.

• Tech-enabled threats drive fear and more updates. Tracking malware has become a business unto itself – one fifth of devices breached and 1.5 million new incidents detected in just one quarter in 2017. In fact, a quarter of those device owners did not even know that their device had been under attack.Often the malware is embedded in ads inside publications older adults trust – an email attachment inadvertently sent by someone they know or in a website they trust.

So what is the solution to help the older population stay better connected?  Stay tuned for next month's Future of Voice First Technology and Older Adults 2018 Report.

And as always, thoughts welcome.

category tags: 

computers, internet and social networking

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/seniors-what-are-negative-impacts-rapid-technology-change

CES 2018: Five More New Technologies For Older Adults

Tech with applicability in the older adult market.   The Digital Health event is also covered in detail through MobiliHealth news and few of those announcements, not even counting the plethora of tech that addresses diabetes and brain health, could specifically benefit older adults.  And more expert and more detailed (and analytical writing) about new tech at CES reveals a few more offerings that could be useful for older adults if applied to that market.  Here are five – more when there’s more:

• Invoxia portable Alexa speaker. "Here’s an example of filling a hole in Amazon’s own product line. It is just a battery powered speaker with embedded Alexa. Triby features voice control with Amazon Alexa and is a smart portable speaker, Internet radio, hands-free speakerphone, and connected message board all rolled into one! Use the Alexa Voice Service to play music, provide information, get the news, set alarms, control smart home devices, and more using just your voice. Just say the wake word "Alexa" and Triby responds instantly." Learn more at CNET.

• Lenovo Smart Display. "The Lenovo Smart Device, intended to compete with the Echo Show, the interface design is different to that of a phone, however. Everything is larger, bolder, pared down without the ultra-detail that you'll find from Google Assistant on a phone. This is to keep things simple, to typically keep your hands off the device - although the touchscreen is perfectly usable - and help focus, including playing music, making calls, recognizing different voices."  Learn more at Pocket-Lint.

• MobileHelp and Samsung GearWatch.  "MobileHelp, a maker of home and wearable medical alert devices, also announced a new partnership with Samsung to bring its emergency response capabilities to Gear smartwatches.  Called MobileHelp Smart, the devices integrate MobileHelp’s platform into a modified version of Samsung’s watch, taking advantage of its fitness-monitoring features, GPS, and cell capabilities." Learn more at Research Park.

• ADT Health.  "ADT, Reemo Health and Samsung have teamed together to provide customers with wellness data, connectivity and an ADT professionally-monitored personal emergency response system (PERS) on the stylish Samsung Gear S2 and S3 Gear smartwatches. Gone is the stigma from pendants and wristbands, users can proudly wear their PERS device with confidence, knowing that help is a simple tap away to a live two-way voice assistance with a specially-trained ADT agent directly from the watch’s speaker. Gear S2 or S3 can also track fitness trends, including steps and heart rate, encouraging seniors to stay active. The collaboration allows ADT to provide seniors, their families and caregivers, peace of mind and better visibility to their health, enabling them to actively manage their own wellness, maintain an independent lifestyle and access help anytime, if needed." Learn more at the CES overview from ADT.

• Corti. "Corti is an example of how AI can augment, not supplant, human healthcare workers. The AI runs in the background of an emergency dispatch call, analyzing not only the caller's words but also background noises that might include the victim's breathing patterns. It culls that information for indicators that someone is suffering from cardiac arrest, then prompts the dispatcher to ask questions or walk the callers through activities like CPR that could stabilize the patient until the ambulance arrives." Learn more at MobiHealthNews.

category tags: 

Mobile PERS, voice/AI technology, mHealth-Digital Health-Telehealth

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/ces-2018-five-more-new-technologies-older-adults

CES 2018:Five More New Technologies To Ponder

Tech with applicability in the older adult market.   The Digital Health event is also covered in detail through MobiliHealth news  and few of those announcements, not even counting the plethora of tech that addresses diabetes and brain health, could specifically benefit older adults  And more expert and more detailed (and analytical writing) about new tech at CES reveals a few more offerings that could be useful for older adults if applied to that market.  Here are five – more when there’s more:

• Invoxia portable Alexa speaker. Here’s an example of filling a hole in Amazon’s own product line. It is just a battery powered speaker with embedded Alexa. Triby features voice control with Amazon Alexa and is a smart portable speaker, Internet radio, hands-free speakerphone, and connected message board all rolled into one! Use the Alexa Voice Service to play music, provide information, get the news, set alarms, control smart home devices, and more using just your voice. Just say the wake word "Alexa" and Triby responds instantly. Learn more at CNET.

• Lenovo Smart Display. The Lenovo Smart Device, intended to compete with the Echo Show, the interface design is different to that of a phone, however. Everything is larger, bolder, pared down without the ultra-detail that you'll find from Google Assistant on a phone. This is to keep things simple, to typically keep your hands off the device - although the touchscreen is perfectly usable - and help focus, including playing music, making calls, recognizing different voices.  Learn more at Pocket-Lint.

• MobileHelp and Samsung GearWatch.  MobileHelp, a maker of home and wearable medical alert devices, also announced a new partnership with Samsung to bring its emergency response capabilities to Gear smartwatches.  Called MobileHelp Smart, the devices integrate MobileHelp’s platform into a modified version of Samsung’s watch, taking advantage of its fitness-monitoring features, GPS, and cell capabilities. Learn more at Research Park.

• ADT Health.  ADT, Reemo Health and Samsung have teamed together to provide customers with wellness data, connectivity and an ADT professionally-monitored personal emergency response system (PERS) on the stylish Samsung Gear S2 and S3 Gear smartwatches. Gone is the stigma from pendants and wristbands, users can proudly wear their PERS device with confidence, knowing that help is a simple tap away to a live two-way voice assistance with a specially-trained ADT agent directly from the watch’s speaker. Gear S2 or S3 can also track fitness trends, including steps and heart rate, encouraging seniors to stay active. The collaboration allows ADT to provide seniors, their families and caregivers, peace of mind and better visibility to their health, enabling them to actively manage their own wellness, maintain an independent lifestyle and access help anytime, if needed. Learn more at the CES overview from ADT.

• Corti. Corti is an example of how AI can augment, not supplant, human healthcare workers. The AI runs in the background of an emergency dispatch call, analyzing not only the caller's words but also background noises that might include the victim's breathing patterns. It culls that information for indicators that someone is suffering from cardiac arrest, then prompts the dispatcher to ask questions or walk the callers through activities like CPR that could stabilize the patient until the ambulance arrives. Learn more at MobiHealthNews.

category tags: 

Mobile PERS, voice/AI technology, mHealth-Digital Health-Telehealth

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/ces-2018-five-more-new-technologies-ponder