In most countries around the world, the proportion of adults over 60 is growing larger. Developed countries, in particular, face a growing crisis as they struggle to fund programs like Medicare and Social Security.
Individuals with elderly family members face challenges of their own. Frequently dubbed "The Sandwich Generation," people that care both for aging parents and growing children have to devote time and money to their parents' healthcare while trying to save college money and attend school activities.
A company called ollo mobile recently completed an Indiegogo campaign for a product called CloudPhone. The company markets CloudPhone as a solution to keep seniors in touch with their family members thanks to cloud connectivity.
CloudPhone is worn on a string around the neck, added onto a keychain or kept in a person's pocket. The small device works at the touch of a button, but it also utilizes voice-controlled dialing. Tools like an accelerometer track a senior's movement and physical activity so that family members know immediately if a senior has taken a fall.
Additionally, CloudPhone enables instant family conference calling and tracks seniors using both indoor and outdoor geolocation. As founder and CTO Ken Macken explains, CloudPhone has applications even beyond senior care.
"It’s designed to enable people who might have trouble using other mobile devices to stay connected with family members and to alert people when something goes wrong," Macken said in a statement. "But it’s not just for seniors. It will have a range of features in the one device useful for older people, people who are restricted in their movement and even children."
For example, parents of children that walk to and from school or children of latchkey kids can monitor their children's movements and receive instant alerts if a child is in trouble.
ollo plans to release CloudPhone in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia by mid-2014. The company will start production soon after exceeding their Indiegogo crowdfunding goal.
Edited by
Blaise McNamee
