Context

In this post, we are going to talk about several situations and environmental queues that relate to our cause as well as some of the ongoing attempts to solve this along with possible technologies that will help us. 

We found that many of these queues prove to be quite troublesome and hence making our cause quite a strong one. The following is what we found during our interview sessions with around 10 elderly people within family and friends as well as day-to-day observations.

Eyesight problems are very common with regard to senior citizens

1. The eyesight of many elderly people becomes weak due to an increase in short-sightedness or even cataracts. Permanent solutions to these pose many side effects while temporary solutions are well, temporary, and not very accurate. Even with the solutions these problems still don't help in navigation.
    
2. Spectacles pose a very interesting problem by themselves, for people with bi-focal vision. If you look carefully you will notice the current solution for bi-focal vision is a pair of spectacles where the bottom half is at a different shape meant for long-sightedness. This means that even if a senior citizen looks down and walks he/she is looking through the bottom half of the specs which makes the road or path they are moving on even more blurry and inaccurate thus adding to the problem rather than solving it. 

Lack of sense with walking leads to more such accidents

1. With age, the sense of surroundings and objects around you reduces. Simultaneously your reaction towards sudden changes in your environment also deteriorates. This makes elderly people more prone to misjudgment.

Medical conditions faced by the elderly

1. Senior citizens with diabetes and other chronic ailments can have major problems if they trip and fall, as even a small cut or bruise can lead to a life-threatening injury. They are also highly prone to light-headedness. In fact, we found that this problem is very common and is a topic of concern for many. The younger people at home often worry for the elderly in this regard. 

We did a lot of research on existing products and found the following that helps our cause to a certain extent, in order to gain some inspiration.

Listed below are some key ideas we found from other products.

The Apple watch

The Apple IWatch Series 4 comes with a fall detector that can be turned on or off. 

It also uses multiple fall detection technologies like an accelerometer, gyroscope, barometric sensor, and proprietary algorithms.

Though it's a good fall detector, however, its complexity can make it challenging for older seniors to use and is very expensive.

 Price: ~₹ 40000

Starky Livio AI Hearing Aid

The Starky Livio is a device that helps people with hearing loss with an added fall detector. The company believes that this problem which is our main highlight is found in people with mild hearing loss. 

It is located on the head and is never taken off, making it easier to avoid false alarms unlike a device worn on the wrist or hip. These are the two biggest plus points we can derive from this product.

If the hearing aid detects a fall, it sends a text notification to up to three family contacts along with the location. The Family can then call the wearer to determine the appropriate response.

Price: $2,327