Welcoming a robot into her family was never Maxine Duncan’s idea of a support aide in her older years.
However, this winter, she and her partner, Herbert Yarbrough, signed up to test a telepresence robot in their retirement community in Walnut Creek, California. Their new pal has a screen for a head and scuttles around on wheels.
The lure was being able to connect more easily with their families via video calls.
Photo: Reuters
The couple were immediately smitten. They have named the robot Jimmy.
“It’s an easy name to remember,” said Duncan, 86, a former real-estate broker.
Yarbrough, 89, takes the robot on the elevator to pick up breakfast downstairs.
“We want to keep up on technology,” said Duncan, who covets a self-driving car. “A lot of older people are isolated from people and ideas. Now we’re on the cutting edge.”
Early adopters like Duncan are on the front lines of testing new technologies that some experts say are set to upend a few of the constants of retirement.
Eager not to be left behind, retirement communities are increasingly serving as testing grounds that vet winners and losers.
Some simple tools that can help older adults are already mass-market consumer items, like Amazon.com Inc’s personal assistant, Alexa. Other inventions, such as virtual reality (VR) technologies and robotic limbs, are still in their early days, but could soon provide more freedom, resources and constant care to retirees.
Some technologists see the most promise in the social dimensions.
For too long, technology has been chasing problems rather than trying to delight human beings, said Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Where are the devices that help us learn and expand our horizons?” he asked.
Virtual reality, for example, can entertain, educate and engage us, he said.
“It’s for young and old alike,” Coughlin said. “And it’s enjoyed, not needed. That’s the high ground.”
These devices will especially help augment the adult child’s caregiver role, he added.
Thuc Vu, co-founder of OhmniLabs Inc, helped invent the robot Ohmni that is now Duncan and Yarbrough’s companion.
Vu, who has a doctorate in computer science from Stanford University, sees consumer robotics as the next big technology wave.
“There’s a huge senior population, but isolation and loneliness is still common,” he said. “And we’re also running out of caregivers, since most of them are getting older.”
The OhmniLabs robot was designed with the techno-averse in mind and requires limited computer knowledge. It is connected to Wi-Fi and operated remotely. In its next iteration, the company is working on training the robot to pick up objects.
“In five years, it will be able to wash dishes, do laundry and clean the house,” Vu said.
This year, OhmniLabs robots is to be offered by a consumer health firm, Home Care Assistance Corp, to retirement communities and people aging in place.
The yearly cost is about 20 percent of the cost, on average, of hiring full-time caregivers, Home Care Assistance chief executive Lily Sarafan said.
“In five to seven years, caregiving will shift,” she said. “And a lot of home automation will become more mainstream.”
Digital health means more attention to senior care, said Sarafan, who is an active tech investor and a mentor at StartX, a business incubator at Stanford University.
“Otherwise, aging is a huge challenge,” she added.
Brookdale Senior Living, which has more than 1,000 residential communities, is also testing new technology.
Its Entrepreneur in Residence program invites start-ups into its communities for short stays to test new gadgets. They include “smart” medication devices, virtual reality and family connection apps.
Older adults at Brookdale are eager to offer feedback, director of strategy and innovation Andrew Smith said.
Entrepreneurs also get firsthand experiences with an aging population that has to adapt to their ideas.
“Technology will change the way people age in America,” Smith said.
Some devices miss their mark. Brookdale residents tested a body dryer, which is widely used at amusement parks to dry people after a ride.
“No one would come near it,” he said.
Changing ideas about aging are also affecting how products are branded, said Stephen Johnston, cofounder of the technology accelerator Aging2.0.
However, some companies still have a learning curve, such as one start-up that used the word “grandparent” in its name.
“But not every older person is a grandparent,” Johnston said.
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