Technology Assisted Living

from the big-brother-used-for-good dept

For all the fear about technology that tracks your every move, it sounds like some researchers are coming up with ways to use such technologies for very good purposes, such as helping to monitor the elderly to make sure they're doing okay, without requiring the handholding (literally) of a human care-giver. A number of research labs are working on technology to make sure you took your pills, or to notice that you haven't eaten lately. They're also looking at ways to do early detection of diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson's. From the sound of it, these sensor-based systems are pretty far along, and shouldn't be all that expensive when they're finally ready to come out of the lab. While I'm sure there will be the usual resistance ("I don't need any help...") and worries about privacy violations, a lot of these solutions sound better than the alternatives.