At this year’s CES, edge-tech startups showcased the potential breadth of this field. If technology can help an older person live more comfortably, it can help a lot of other people too. After all, the usefulness of things like mobility assistance, health monitoring platforms and long-term financial planning isn’t limited to the elderly.
Yesterday, I covered startups in a virtual presentation from AARP Innovation Labs, which ran the gamut from a financial literacy platform to a D2C startup creating products to address menopause.
Some of this week’s other coverage includes a Labrador Systems retriever, a robotic cart with a retractable tray system, shelves, and optional fridges. Capable of carrying up to 25 pounds, the retriever assists people with limited mobility, and can deliver payloads such as laundry, food and other items around a home. It can be voice controlled via Alexa (the startup is backed by the Amazon Alexa Fund).
Sengold has come up with a smart lightbulb capable of taking health readings, including heart rate, temperature and sleep tracking through radar sensing. While smart monitors aren’t a new idea, Sengold’s lightbulb is particularly unobtrusive. As noted by our hardware editor Brian Heiter, “this could have some potentially useful applications for ElderCare, including fall detection.”
More tech giants are joining the home health monitoring game, including LG, which announced that all of their 2021 and 2022 smart TVs will come with apps from remote health platform Independenta. This means people will be able to use their LG TVs to make telemedicine appointments and get access to the Pharmacy Benefit scheme.
Medical device startup Eargo has launched its latest hearing aid, the Eargo 6. New features include Sound Adjust, a proprietary algorithm that automatically adjusts its settings so that users don’t have to manually switch them and make speech clearer in noisy environments. It also includes Mask-Mode, an environmental offset that can be selected through Eargo’s app so users can hear people wearing masks more clearly.
Sensorscall unveiled updates to its CareAlert remote monitoring app, which integrates with Apple Watch, Fitbit and other health tracking devices. Its new wellness dashboard allows family members and other caregivers to view trends in daily routine, sleep patterns, hygiene and kitchen usage. CareAlert was created by seniors who are in place in age (or continue to live at home, often isolated from other families).
boko emo robot
BOCCO Emo is one of the latest robots created for nursing homes. Developed by Yukai Engineering, makers of the plush robotic pillow Qoobo, the Boko imo is small enough to sit on a table and connects to medical IoT devices, monitoring patients’ lives and alerting nurses to patients’ conditions . If a patient needs help, BOCCO imo will ‘talk’ to them until the nurse arrives. It can also be used to update families about patients’ conditions. The BOCCO imo has already had a trial program in Japan and is currently being used in hospitals in the country. The tiny robot uses “emo language,” which Yukai Engineering says is capable of interpreting a user’s speech and emotion and reacting according to “sound effects, facial expressions and gestures.”
Startups that help create independent living through the use of IoT sensors include Nodus Solutions’ Cocoon, a network of small IoT sensors connected to a mobile app for caregivers and family members. This algorithm learns a person’s habits, and notifies caregivers if there is a change in behavior.
Other startups that use a combination of IoT sensors, AI-based technology and mobile apps are Caregiver Smart Solutions, Unaide and Smart Macadam.
