Mary Hulme (a geriatric consultant and dementia care specialist) and I just published a non-fiction e-Book (on “Activity-tracking Home Sensor Systems“). If you are at all interested in the topic, we would love it if you would check it out. :) We did a lot of research on this new class of products, that are designed to go in the home of a senior who lives by his/herself and help keep them safe. We think of this as the home that watches over your parent. We learned a lot about which products work, which ones don’t, and most importantly which ones work best for specific life circumstances. We decided this might be useful for others in our situation, and wanted to make this information (which took a lot of work to collect) available for others. In brief, we found there are a lot of these products and they all seem quite similar at first glance, but that in fact they vary quite a bit, with some being suitable for certain situations, and other life situations needing quite different products.
Read about the research project here.
Get the eBook on Amazon here.
Here is the Book description (from Amazon).
“Activity-tracking Home Sensor Systems” are new products designed to help seniors stay in their homes longer, and to help their family and friends worry about them less. If you worry about an elderly relative or friend who spends a lot of time home alone, and are concerned about what would happen if they fell, or if they left the stove on, or if they had an accident and you were not there to help, then these products are designed with you in mind.
When the authors (a scientist-turned entrepreneur, and a geriatric consultant) set out to find one of these systems for their own use, they discovered that information about these products is sorely lacking, except in the form of marketing material disseminated by the companies. And at first glance, a number of these systems look the same. So they set out to research the field. After quite a lot of digging, they found that there are significant differences between the products, and that the “best” product is very dependent on your exact life situation.
This independent report looks in-depth at the leading Activity-tracking Home Sensor Systems: how they work; Which ones work best; how are they the same / different; and, most importantly, how to match the best Activity-tracking Home Sensor System with your individual needs. Activity-tracking Home Sensor Systems represent a new and emerging product category that is rapidly changing. “The Home That Watches Over Your Parents” is the first and only independent, objective report about these products. This e-book provides an analysis of the entire product category, as well as of specific products, and comes with links to an online database of more detailed product features that will be updated as new products enter the market.
The authors, Richard Caro and Mary Hulme, are members of the Longevity Collective, a group of Citizen Observers, Evaluators & Makers — working together to improve the quality of life of people as they age. This report is an initiative of the Longevity Collective, and is published by Tech-enhanced Life, PBC, which is the organization that manages the Longevity Collective on behalf of its members. Tech-enhanced Life, PBC is a Public Benefit Corporation with a mission of improving the quality of life of the aging and their families.
Get the eBook on Amazon here.
Filed under: Aging, Market product fit, startups Tagged: activity-tracking, seniors, sensors
