RetirementHomes.com - Gadget Reviews

Touch Screen Technologies for Seniors with Dementia

aadmin — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 09:34:07 +0000

Technology is easier to use than ever before. Tablets and touch screen monitors have forever changed the way we interact with technology, making the experience much more accessible and accommodating for new users.

Tablets and touch screens can be used by anyone, including older adults living with dementia, mobility and dexterity issues, and other common disabilities, like vision impairments. Everybody – with guidance, support, and a willingness to learn – can find great value in touch technologies and the Internet.

Tablets are the easiest device for beginners. Older adults without previous computer experience can begin by playing online games, asking Google to find information using a “voice search” command, or zooming in on their home town map - in only a few minutes.

Tablets simplify accessing the Internet with their light weight and intuitive design, opening the gateway to amazing user possibilities. The primary reason tablet computers are so helpful for seniors is due to their user-friendly controls. Unlike a computer or laptop, a tablet’s touchscreen interface only needs one finger for basic control. Even those with shaky grips or limited dexterity can still accurately touch the screen by implementing a stylus pen.

A huge benefit of having access to tablets and the Internet is free entertainment. Many complimentary games are available on tablets to stimulate the player’s mind, including puzzles, word games, memory games, and sports games, like golf. These games are often considered to assist in brain fitness. They push players to think, be creative, solve problems, and complete tasks. Games can be great fun as a viable means of escapism, which we all occasionally need. The look on someone's face driving a virtual race car at a hundred miles an hour is priceless :)

Another popular use for tablets is watching online videos, through“apps” like YouTube. Users can call up videos of anything they want ... from live music concerts and old television shows, to knitting instructions and documentaries about World War II. There are online videos on just about everything for all to enjoy.

It may not be possible for some individuals with dementia to remember all the steps in operating tablets. It’s suggested that someone stay close to act as a technology coach. New learners will feel they are positively progressing, instead of forgetting what to do next, or accidentally tapping on an in-app advertisement, which can happen to the best of us.

Having a guide to answer questions, or set up activities or games, motivates seniors to try new things that could make them uncomfortable on their own. Often, quick reminders of the simple controls helps users with dementia progress and overcome small hurdles in seconds, which positively reinforces their own accomplishments too!

Tags:

alzheimer's care

Computer News

dementia care

Gadget Reviews

management

Categories:

Computer News

Gadget Reviews

Learning and Technology

Management

Marketing

Sales

Senior Living Professionals

Tablets KO eReaders for Older Adults

aadmin — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 11:38:55 +0000

eReaders became trendy among seniors as compact electronic reading tools, but tablets are poised to take over on the popular and residential front.

Older adults are part of a growing surge in tablets as reported by PewResearchCenter’s Tablet Ownership 2013. According to the report, tablet ownership has grown from 3% to 34% in three years. Although eReaders maintain a slight edge within the older population, that situation is about to change.

PewResearchCenter’s statistics show older adults increasingly going online to e-mail, search the Web, make purchases, bank, read news, and participate in social networking – Generations 2010. Online activity by seniors will create a demand for tablets.

Patric Welch, also known as Mr. Noobie, has assisted many older adults with computer and gadget problems as an educator and on his website, Noobie.com.

He asks seniors, “Is reading books the only thing you want to do with this device?” Once they realize they can e-mail, play games, and build a reading library, they become convinced to choose tablets.

His observations contrast with analysts who predicted the dominance of E-readers for Older Adults.

According to Welch, the tablet satisfies up to 95% of the activities of seniors now utilized on computers. “Computers are losing relevance," he said. “Even a laptop is cumbersome to carry compared with a tablet.”

Tablets are easier for older adults than computers. Their start-up is automatic compared to the slower boot up speeds for computers. Tech-challenged seniors find tablets to be the most adaptable computing tools on the market.

Welch cites his parents: “It’s demanding for my mom and dad to boot up a computer, login, install virus software and backups,” he said. “It’s a real learning curve.”

Older adults can find difficulty in installing new software and navigating a computer. Touching apps on the surface of tablets is easy. Installation is effortless. The tablet takes away the fear of technology.

Tablets have proven to be effective platforms for designed therapeutic music in Alzheimer’s settings streaming spiritual and music audio programs to residents.

An app newcomer to the 55+ demographic is babbel, a language-learning device, from babbel.com. Markus Witte, Founder and CEO said the app goes deep into grammar courses and other language areas. babbel.com, from Berlin, Germany, offers 13 languages including English. Its top languages in the USA are Spanish and French. Other top-ranked learning languages are German, Italian and Portuguese.

Witte said babbel.com doesn’t specifically target senior citizens, but the demographic still constitutes a large portion of its users. Often, older adults utilize the babbel app to refresh a previously-learned language or to train their brain, said Witte. “Language learning is one of the best approaches to staying mentally agile.”

He references his parents as examples of the capability of the babbel app. "My 80-year-old parents are power users.”

A few popular senior apps:

Skype
Crosswords
Luminosity - a brain games app
WebMD - for health information
Med Reminder - a medication tracker
Big Calculator
Dragon Dictation – transcribes verbal language into e-mail

Tags:

Categories:

Learning and Technology

Online Learning

Software Reviews

The Brave New World of Medical Alarms

aadmin — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 10:11:11 +0000

The medical alarm industry is on a growth curve. Innovations ensure a greater acceptance in more homes of adults opting to age in place.

Also called PERS (Personal Emergency Response System), these small, unobtrusive gadgets are gaining wider spread recognition.

How Do Medical Alarms Work?

Chuck Stevens is the Vice President of the Health and Wellness Strategic Business Unit for Linear LLC, a large manufacturer of PERS devices, located in Carlsbad, CA. He described the inner workings of these electronic devices.

A pendant, watch or clip is carried or worn by the older person in a home setting. A button on the device activates radio signals to summon help. A residential console contacts a remote emergency reporting center; a 2-way voice communications is activated with the senior-in-crisis.

Remote Call in Centers

They are located across the USA with trained accessible emergency reporting operators. They do not provide medical advice, Stevens said. They determine the situation and condition of older adults and summon help via 911. The reporting center calls designated people of the elderly person – family, friends, and neighbors.

Previous medic alarms possessed limited range, but Linear’s PERS-4200 can function within a range up to 1,000 feet, in the home, yard, and garage. “But not miles or blocks away,” said Stevens. “It’s designed for local use only.”

PERS – Response or Reporting?

Linear LLC, founded over 50 years ago as a security and access control company, has expanded into the medical alert field. Stevens utilizes the PERS moniker differently, deviating from the standard Personal Emergency Response System, renaming it as a Personal Emergency Recording System. The company’s PERS 4200 possesses add-ons for 16 devices, including smoke, fire, and carbon monoxide detection.

Expanding the Horizons of PERS

Active Care Inc. of Oren, UT, has designed a PERS product that can alert emergencies of older adults across North America – USA, Canada, and Mexico.

Michael Z. Jones, the company’s Chief Strategy Officer, outlined the far-ranging capabilities of its premier product – the Active One PERS Device.

In the event of an emergency, Active Care communicates regardless of the location of the older-adult-in-need, said Jones. The company’s proprietary technology embeds GPS-location capability within a miniature PERS device.

The PERS Device employs a cellular network. Combined with GPS, the exact location of an injured senior can be determined and a remote communication line established from vast distances.

At Home and Abroad with GPS

GPS capability means PERS wearers can reside in their homes or travel anywhere in North America and utilize the Active One. In emergency situations, cross- continental seniors can push the PERS button. An alert will be sent to the local cellular provider and relayed to the internal call center in Utah.

Emergency response will be dispatched to local first responders. Family and friends will be notified of the crisis.

A complex system – access to emergency regardless of location – has been combined with the ability to locate the respondent through GPS – said Jones.

---

There are many other PERS providers in North America. Consumers need to select the right option for their lifestyles.

Image One - PERS 4200 Lifestyle. Image Two - DXS-LRC Wristband. Courtesy of Linear LLC.

Tags:

Gadget Reviews

technology

Categories:

Gadget Reviews

Learning and Technology

Maids Learn ElderCare through App

aadmin — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 15:01:21 +0000

Singapore, a city-state with over 5 million people, lays at the southern tip of Malaysia. This diverse showcase of Chinese, Malays and Indians, possesses a growing ageing population in an expensive city.

Singaporean couples are double earners and can't afford to stay at home to caretake elderly relatives. The solution has become to hire maids as caretakers, writes the channelnewsasia.com.

To help out, BorderlessMinders.com is touting a new app called Medically Informed Minders (MiM). The app presents a course covering the common physical, mental and social elderly changes and equips maids with basic medical knowledge.

MiM is available in English, Tagalog and Bahasa Indonesia and offers specific skills and common medical knowledge related to caring for stroke or dementia sufferers. Filipina Rubie Benito, 28, hopes that the MiM course she took recently will increase her chance of getting a job as a Singapore maid.

Dr. Bruce Clark, a Mature Market authority from California, is the moving force behind the BorderlessMinders app.

Many caregivers are employing apps in the USA and Canada.

Tags:

Gadget Reviews

Categories:

Gadget Reviews

Learning and Technology

On the Road - Everyday Gadget Use for Boomers

aadmin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:14:30 +0000

I'm just one Baby Boomer and last week I was on the road up and down the east coast for graduations. In between the two graduations I attended a professional conference. I expect that my life is a lot like yours. Boomers are ever moving, whether visiting children and grandkids or traveling for fun. However, this time I was amazed at how many times I used some gadget or my iPhone to help me out while I traveled and even at the conference. Here are some of the ways I used technology:

GPS - The GPS navigation in my car was a life saver. When I booked the hotels for this trip I was a little bit late (graduation day hotels are often booked a year ahead of time) and the hotel in Maryland I found was a bit out of the way. My GPS got us to the hotel for graduation and to the graduation ceremony with no problems.

Blackberry navigation - Once, we found that the GPS that came with the the car wasn't updated with all of the local streets located inside the University of Maryland campus. My daughter brought out her Blackberry and we were able to use that to navigate the campus and find our way to specific buildings.

Hotel Reservations - First, I made my reservations online, once using a hotel site and once using one of the travel sites like Expedia, Orbitz or Hotels.com. I kept a copy of my hotel reservation on my phone, just in case, so I could check to make sure I was being charged correctly. I admit, I also printed it out.

Finding Restaurants - In one case we were looking for Gluten-free restaurants in Boston. First we used Google online to find one, simply by keying in the words Gluten free + Boston. Then we used one of the many review sites (I can't remember if it was Urban Spoon, Open Table, or Yelp) to find out what people thought of the place. I made reservations using Open Table.

Taking some pictures - The battery in my husband's fancy Nikon camera wasn't charged when we went to use it in Maryland, so I took out my iPhone and took some pictures with the phone. They weren't the best pictures I've ever taken, but they were better than not having a record of these important memories. I can't wait for the day when the iPhone has a really good camera in it.

Sending photo messages - I sent one of those pictures, of my niece and her husband participating in our festivities, directly to my brother-in-law's iPhone through photo messaging. That was cool. I've used photo messaging before, but this was a terrific way to send the picture.

Texting - The phone reception in each of the graduation venues was terrible, but we all kept in touch by texting. Somehow the texts went through when the phone calls wouldn't.

At the conference - I used my iPhone to record presentations and take pictures of events. The little record app that came with the iPhone did a great job. I wrote about this record app when I first got my phone.

This was just a short list of all the ways technology helped me enjoy these special days. We were at dinner with relatives when one of my husband's cousins jokingly said to me, "now what will you do? Put your pictures up on Facebook?" He thought he was being funny. Well, that's exactly what I plan to do, as soon as I have them together. And that should give me some fodder for a future post.

Tags:

Gadget Reviews

Categories:

Computer News

Gadget Reviews

Learning and Technology