Gadgets project aims to help infirm

Practical gadgets to help the elderly and infirm at home have been developed by a university team using the latest technology.

Researchers have produced a vibrating wristband which acts as a reminder device and a bowl which lights up when easily-lost items such as keys are placed in it.

The MultiMemoHome project led by Glasgow University's School of Computing Science and Edinburgh University's School of Informatics is designed to help older and disabled people live more independent lives.
Behind the devices are a series of "multimodal" technologies which harness sound, vision, smell and touch to create interactive systems easily understood by people with cognitive or sensory difficulties.

Marilyn McGee-Lennon, Glasgow University's lead researcher on the project, said: "We've taken significant steps to developing products which easily interact with each other and are fully customisable, so users can set them up to work in ways which they can easily understand and react to.

  

"A fully-wired house could track a person through their day, providing reminders for medication or meals, ensuring they remember their appointments or preventing them from missing phone calls or calls at their front door."
Twelve elderly people from the west of Scotland took part in a trial of a tablet-based system developed by the researchers at the end of last year.
Elspeth Harte, of Bothwell, South Lanarkshire, said: "I was given a tablet and a digital pen to use for several weeks to keep track of my appointments.
"The pen let me write notes in my paper diary and they were automatically transferred to my tablet, which would give me reminders to make sure I remembered to keep my appointments. It was easy to use and it was a real, practical benefit to me."
The MultiMemoHome project began in 2009, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Source : Mearnsleader  ( 19th feb 2013 )