Aging in Place With Technology
From: Georgia Institute of Technology - 05/06/2004

Preliminary findings of a Georgia Institute of Technology study presented at
the Association of Computing Machinery's CHI 2004 conference indicate that
older adults are willing to accept monitoring to a certain degree in order to
extend their independence rather than move into assisted-living quarters. The
study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National
Science Foundation, is part of the Aware Home initiative at Georgia Tech's
Broadband Institute Residential Laboratory. The research involved 44 adults
between the ages of 65 and 75 touring the lab, viewing assistive technologies
developed at the Georgia Tech College of Computing, and relaying the
technologies' good points and bad points. Technologies featured at the lab
included Cook's Collage, a setup in which unobtrusive cameras monitor meal
preparation and display the cook's six most recent actions on a flat-panel
screen so chefs can remember their past actions; FaceBot, an
camera/microphone/speaker combination that allows residents to vocally
command other home technologies; and Digital Family Portrait, a display
monitor in the caregiver's home that shows static images of the elderly
relative and a frame that tracks activity levels and other information via a
set of icons. "Understanding how older adults evaluate technology provides
insights into their judgments and decision-making processes, which will help
us design tools they will actually use," notes Georgia Tech psychology
professor Wendy Rogers. Study participants were primarily interested in
technologies they perceived as being beneficial to them, and necessary to
their lives rather than luxury items. Participants were alternately comforted
or unsettled by FaceBot, which is designed to resemble a human face; one
individual thought the device could be useful as a tool for greeting
visitors. Digital Family Portrait may be criticized as an infringement of
privacy, but Rogers reports that some older participants felt more secure
with the idea of being monitored. 

http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/privacy.htm