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Comment by John E Forth on February 17, 2012 at 9:57

Got to be careful about sponsorship, I can't imagine a user wanting rolling adverts instead of family photos.

Comment by Kate Bowers on February 16, 2012 at 14:31

Do we need to start taliking to some of our business partners in the city, we could do to identify one or two potential sponsors to supply the tablets initially, maybe as match funding?

For the les savvy person we should involve partners who already access older people, libraries, adult social care, age uk etc. It may just be a case of people needing support for a little while until they grasp it.

Comment by Antony Powell on February 10, 2012 at 12:21

(Quick reply) I don't think it necessarily needs a commercial solution as the technology is mostly available off-the-shelf and built-in to most Tablets. Tailoring of a York App (portal) for the purpose could be done on a voluntary basis or a student project. The costs are purchasing the device and providing the broadband service. There are an emerging range of low-cost wifi based smart sensors that can be connected to monitor temperature, movement, etc. I would steer clear of commercial solutions which lock you in to technologies and recurring costs in favour of running this as an off-the-shelf 'open source' project.

Comment by John E Forth on February 8, 2012 at 17:07

What you need to do is work up a specification for such a device and its associated support system. As Antony Powell says, it has to be people friendly and personal.  It could become an adjuct to the Telecare systems that are beginning to prolifferate..   The device itself is pretty much a standard tablet computer, the clever bit is the simple set of apps on board and an eaven simpler system to support it.   Being by definition a 'smart' device it could work in the background with only those apps that the person can handle being 'visible'. Background monitoring of house/room temp would be one such facility with other added as the sensors became available. Again a look at the Telecare system would point the way. 

To kick start it a brief to sixth formers/students engaged in Design Technology or Information Technology courses (no they are not the same) would no doubt throw up questions and maybe some answers.

A serious consideration should be given to appraoching Amstrad (yes, Sir Alan Sugar)who has the manufacturing capacity to develop something like this.

BT and Skpe can provide the communication infrastructure howver existing council services may be able to be extended to cope.

Comment by Antony Powell on February 8, 2012 at 16:36

I think there's mileage in this. My guess is to use a budget Android Tablet running an app that provides *very* simple (big button) access to the sort of services an elderly person might need. Setting up a skype account will take care of the video conferencing and would allow peer-to-peer where residents can talk to their family or other elderly people in York (or beyond) although not to the extent of chat roulette!

Remote support should be possible but they will need a broadband/wireless services. However, the app might simplify access to other types of information needs - emails, local news, weather warnings (it's icy or cold), access to council services.

Further more there is the potential for "wellbeing" apps to get the elderly to 'check-in' that they are ok (or even feeling happy/lonely/unwell), report if they are without heating, or even that they have taken their medication. Integration with Skype could even provide one touch calling to doctors, pharmacies, council or emergency services.

Obviously accessibility is an issue but we have strong Human Computer Interaction (HCI) group at the Uni who could work on interfaces, screen readers, etc, but that's much easier now we have Tablets. Rolling together such an App isn't a big deal these days and could even be a student project. 

In innovation terms, there's a lot going on in this space, at the TSB Innovate 2011 Conference there were applications for iphones/tablets that also allow remote monitoring of health data. Any project in this area should search the existing 'marketplace' but will have to pragmatically consider the costs and take-up of this type of solution.

A final observation is that is a technology-led solution, but what we really need is to foster old-fashioned people-to-people communication. I might post something on that front.  

Comment by Heather Barden on February 8, 2012 at 16:06

But how do we find out who is producing the technology we need and how do we get access to it. Any ideas?

Comment by John E Forth on February 7, 2012 at 16:56

Keep it simple and you will have people use it, It must not become a 'Window 7 like nightmare'

Comment by Heather Niven on February 7, 2012 at 13:40

you could also add the functionality for online board games to play live with friends/other users of the system?