Today's New York Times offers the promise of medical monitoring without wires, or, I think, face-to-face contact with medical types. I don't think I'm ready for constant monitoring as described here, but I sure would welcome easier ways and quicker ways to get some routine tasks done.
How Will America Handle Its Senior Moment?
As tens of millions of members of the Baby Boomer generation rapidly near retirement age, America is in need of innovative new solutions that will help it prepare for an unprecedented aging of its population. One answer to America's looming demographic crisis might be a new global movement from the World Health Organization (WHO) to transform cities around the world into "age-friendly" urban zones that better integrate senior citizens into the economic life of the community. New York City – a city that rarely (if ever) comes to mind as a destination to live out a Golden Retirement – just launched the Age-Friendly NYC initiative, with the first Aging Improvement District opening this month in East Harlem. Similar initiatives, launched across America, could be a big step forward in preparing for America's Senior Moment.
via bigthink.com
A welcome and creative way to approach a problem of increasing urgency.
Can Design Get People To Take Their Meds? | Co. Design
My mom called me crying recently. She’s 68 years old, overweight, inactive, and suffers from a litany of “old-age ailments” including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, borderline diabetes, arthritis, and hearing and vision limitations. Her situation probably sounds familiar to a lot of baby boomers and their kids.
Every Sunday evening, she loads her four-by-seven pill case with her 12 prescription medications, three vitamins, and two over-the-counter pain relievers. She can’t remember or even pronounce the names of most of these pills. She can barely recall which are for her heart and which are for her joints. Sometimes she skips taking her pills altogether. She figures if she’s feeling good, why mess with it? My mom is not alone.
via fastcodesign.com
This is also a Sunday evening task for me, too. Doesn't reduce me to tears exactly, but it does give me lots to think about. I love what people are working on—a centralized database for tracking medications, better storage methods, better ways to track your medications, and more.
The World Becomes What You Teach
After all these years, I finally find the school I should have gone to and the teacher I should have had. Watch it—I think the presentation and the content is challenging and deserving not just of thought but of action. My thoughts have really been focused in this direction lately—see also this Fast Company piece on focusing on solutions.
I one of those amazing coincidences, the Washington Post featured a story on the Fairfax County School Board elections this year on its front page. Guess I'd better pay more attention.
How the Humble Washing Machine Is Getting a Digital Spin
How the Humble Washing Machine Is Getting a Digital Spin
On August 9, 1910, 101 years ago to the day, the U.S. Patent Office granted Alva J. Fisher of the Hurley Machine Co. a patent for an electrically powered washing machine.
In recent years, the washing machine has been transformed from a utilitarian appliance to a tweeting, texting, mobile-friendly and Internet-connected addition to the digital home.
We saw a few clever washing machine hacks, inspired by Twitter, introduced between 2007 and 2009. At CES, manufacturers such as LG teased audiences with the notion of a smart home, where appliances would talk to each other and the web. Some of these washers are just now becoming available for consumer purchase.
What’s next in the evolution of the washing machine? With Wi-Fi prevalent in homes and social media the preoccupation du jour, should we expect to see washers, dryers and other in-home appliances become sophisticated extensions of our digital obsessions? Or is this a fad that will fade with time? Chime in with your thoughts in the comments.
Laundry Room Twitter Bot
Roland Crosby created the @laundryroom Twitter bot in early 2007 during his freshman year in college. The bot spoke on behalf of a laundry room, at Needham, Massachusetts’ Franklin W. Olin College, with two washers, two dryers and a condom dispenser — it would update followers on the availability of each machine.
As of 2010, Crosby’s bot has ceased to update followers, but the creation did get ample press mentions and was mentioned in conjunction with other sensor-based applications at the heart of the web 2.0 movement by Tim O’Reilly at the Web 2.0 Expo in 2008.
The Washing Machine Hack
In 2009, Ryan Rose made headlines for his Washing Machine Twitter Hack.
Rose’s replicable machination calls for a network port, BS2 Stamp, 9 volt power inverter and a limit switch to detect wash mode. When added to a washer (an old Maytag model in Rose’s case), the end result is an automatic way of getting notified by tweet that your laundry is done.
Rose’s washer @PiMPY3WASH is, to this day, still updating the world via Twitter with each completed load.
Smart Washers
The Internet-connected washer of tomorrow promises those with a penchant for digital and social behaviors a way to get more function out of their appliances, without the need to hack or modify the machines on their own.
LG demonstrated the potential of connected appliances with a preview of its THINQ line and futuristic home appliance strategy at CES in 2011. The product line proposed to offer homeowners a way to manage their appliances via PC, tablet and mobile applications.
“This year will be the beginning of a new era of home appliances. By that I mean that we have reached the tipping point where appliances are now run entirely by CPUs and computer code,” Young-ha Lee, president and CEO of LG’s Home Appliance Company said at the time. “Just as automobiles became rolling computers a decade ago, home appliances are experiencing the same transformation.”
Now, LG’s Smart Washing Machine, model FR4349BAYZ, is making its debut in Korea. The machine allows users to monitor and control the appliance via an Android application. The device is expected to be released in more markets before the end of the year.
via mashable.com