Posts Tagged ‘networks’
When will the Digital Smart Home market take off?
06/23/2011
Digital Smart Homes, including some of the same sensor and networking technologies that we promote for home health care, have long been associated with large and expensive new homes with custom installation. It’s a market that has languished as a niche for over 40 years now and has never managed to find its way to mainstream consumers. Why?
Someone asked that question in a forum I monitor, and I had to add my two cents, which I include here for perspective.
Contrast the Digital Smart Home with a modern car. When you buy a new car, it comes with everything included and already integrated to work together. There are many things you DON’T have to buy separately and install yourself, including tires, air conditioning, radio, CD-player, navigation, antilock brakes, towing package, etc.
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An iPad for All Ages
06/11/2011
No computer skills required … and now no computer either
Flickr photo credits: Toddler by umpcportal.com, Senior by Courosa, licensed under Creative Commons
Everyone says the Apple iPad is intuitive, easy to learn, and easy to use. It almost seems tailored to toddlers and seductive to seniors. Grandparents and great grandparents with no prior computer experience can reconnect with family and make new friends online with email, social media, and video conferencing. But as easy and seductive as iPad is, it still required a PC or Mac in order to download or upgrade its software. Not any more. Apple changed that last week with its iCloud announcement and its latest iOS 5 operating system.
Verizon & Healthsense Team on Home-Health Solutions
05/24/2011
Verizon & Healthsense Team to Bring Home-Health Solutions to FiOS-Equipped Senior & Assisted-Living Communities
PRESS RELEASE: NEW YORK – April 27, 2011 – Verizon and Healthsense will help bring cost-effective wellness and health monitoring services to planned senior-living communities, under an agreement announced Wednesday (April 27).
The new services will be offered to senior- and assisted-living housing developments utilizing Verizon’s advanced FiOS all-fiber-optic network. Healthsense’s Wi-Fi based technology systems will provide increased independence for residents and added assurance that they are safe.
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The Future of Home Automation (new market research)
05/24/2011
Reportlinker Adds The Future of Home Automation
NEW YORK, May 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:
The Future of Home Automation [mHealthTalk comments and emphasis added]
Introduction
This [$2,875] report examines how consumers and governments are creating a booming market for “smart home” devices. It analyzes the companies, technologies, and products behind automation in energy, entertainment, home security and health care. It details pilot projects, product costs, industry trends, business alliances, and the new and emerging technologies that are shaping the future of the market.
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IBM’s Jeopardy-winning computer is delving into medicine
05/22/2011
IBM’s Watson supercomputer beat the two world champions in the intellectual game of Jeopardy in January, and now the company plans to extend its artificial intelligence and language abilities to the task of medical diagnoses and treatment. USA Today covered the announcement and its potential.
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Verizon, Healthsense Bring Solutions to Assisted Living
05/02/2011
Alliance Will Promote Cost-Effective Monitoring and Response Systems
NEW YORK (4/27/2011) – Verizon and Healthsense will help bring cost-effective wellness and health monitoring services to planned senior-living communities, under an agreement announced today. [mHealthTalk editor: Healthsense also provides solutions for home healthcare.]
The new services will be offered to senior or assisted-living housing developments utilizing Verizon’s advanced FiOS all-fiber-optic network. Healthsense’s Wi-Fi based technology systems will provide increased independence for residents and added assurance that they are safe.
Home Healthcare products shown at Electronic House Expo
04/25/2011
The Electronic House Expo is a trade show produced by CE Pro magazine for the custom electronics business. Home Healthcare, Home Automation and Home Entertainment were just some of the applications demonstrated this year at EHX 2011 in Orlando. The following video shows highlights of the show.
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Wanderers welcome: New technologies for resident safety
04/11/2011
By Julie Williamson, 4/01/2011, with permission from McKnight’s Long-Term Care News & Assisted Living
Much of Julie’s advice for assisted living centers can also help people with neurological problems stay longer in the familiar surroundings of their homes, so I thank her for letting me republish it here.
As more seniors enter assisted living with mild to moderate dementia, operators are faced with a somewhat daunting dilemma: how they can keep residents who tend to wander safe, without stripping them of their independence and freedom to roam the community they call home.
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Social and Economic Trends that affect Home Networks
04/11/2011
What is driving and enabling the Networked Home?
I wrote this article back in 2001 with a look 10-15 years into the future, just half way through a typical home mortgage. I republish it here, because it’s still relevant today and applicable to home healthcare and the aging-in-home market. [2011 updates are added in italics.]
Homebuyers often ask this question if they’re concerned that their new home might be obsolete before they sell and move out (or if they’re starting to think about home healthcare). Builders also ask it, since they don’t want to add new features until customers demand them but want to plan for shifting attitudes. And companies that make the products, services, and technologies want to understand the market opportunities, leverage points, alliances and risks. Although the question is simple enough to ask, the answer can be complex and involves a discussion of many technology, market and social trends.
This was the last of a three-part series exploring trends driving digital home technologies. The first article covered Science and Technology Trends, and the second focused on Market and Consumer Trends. As always, your comments and suggestions are encouraged.
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Smarter Homes for Home Healthcare
04/02/2011
Mr Coffee programmable coffee pot
Smart home technologies can anticipate needs and make tasks easier or automatic. They’re not just about high-end new homes, proprietary technologies, and professional installation. They’re about comfort, convenience, entertainment, energy management, communications, pet care, surveillance, and security & health monitoring. And you can often install them yourself, starting with the simplest of applications.
Your Coffeepot – I bet, if you look around, you’ll find that you already have some home automation products. It’s really not scary. The purpose of this article is to get you thinking how these products can help with home healthcare.
I was still working at IBM as a market strategist when our family moved from Dallas to Austin. I was trying to convince IBM that it had an IBM-scale opportunity in home automation, and I was studying that market. So when I built our new home, I used it as an experiment. I figured if my technophobic wife warmed to the benefits, then others would too. She did, mostly, and I learned a lot.
The local paper wrote a two-page article about my house, Home Automation Station, but that was 1997, and I retired two years later to become a Digital Home consultant.
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