Technology developments for elder people?

Are we talking about new technology aimed at old people that only old people would use? or are we talking technology aimed at everyone that older people may have trouble with? or something else?

Sorry to be picky, im just not 100% sure what you are asking is all.

A stair lift with a turbo charge. For those awkward toiletry needs…...diarrhea!

@poisonedantidote aimed at everyone that maybe elder generations struggle to get a hold on?

My parents are deathly afraid of adopting web cam capabilities like Skype. I have tried now for almost a year. So sad to think they are missing on seeing their Grandkids because it just isn’t on their radar or to-do list. I even bought it for them!!!

@Cruiser ah that’s sad to hear! my grandparents quite like skype! although they tend to just look at themselves in their box on the screen instead of what university work i’m showing them or whatever! thanks for the answer!

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=6121775&page=1

Here is a whole story on it from the NY Times.

Mobiles and texting has been done to death, so i would stay away from that. Lets see, my 80+ year old grand mother is having a real hard time figuring out digital television and how all the menus and options work.

When she tries to record something she normally ends up recording the wrong thing by accident. There could maybe be some fun to be had with that, grandma records porn by accident or something.

There are more subtle ones too that maybe you could use. for example, the guy on the TV will say “up next is the antiques road show, but now its the simpsons”. so really, the antiques road show is not next, the simpsons is next. So maybe there is some confusion to be had over that.

Is this supposed to be a comedy btw? or something else?

lets see, some others:

- automated phone machines, press 1, press 2, press 3 etc..
– digital picture frames.
– digital voting
– ordering food online
– self checkout at the supermaket.

SIDE NOTE: I just discovered one more thing that makes fluther awesome. My pc crashed, i needed to restart, it crashed again, i restarted again. The pc finaly worked, and when i got back to fluther i had not lost what i had typed, fluther saved it some how. way cool.

I would say the Internet in general. Older folks as well as younger ones like to keep abreast of current events and do a little research on the side every once and a while too. Plus, I know quite a few older folks who love to email.

Older folks can not seem to get a handle on their Medicare or Medicaid Insurance. I don’t have a proposal on any technical developments to help them with this though.

Gol dang it all! Have you heard about them newfangled automobiles—no horses!

Are you talking about new technology to cope with the illnesses thatn tend to accompany the aging process [arthritis, senility, etc…]

If just technology proper, specifically communications technology, sometimes older people just say “I quit!” to technology. So you offer a simplified version of a vhs/cd/player/tv etc.

However “old” is in the mind of the beholder, not necessarily in the mind of the person perceived as old. I remember thinking 30-somethings were ancient. “Never trust anyone over thirty”—That catch phrase should tell you how old I am. Over 60. I can use whatever you use. But I don’t always choose to. I don’t pump my own gas and I don’t self-checkout.

@ucme who needs a steenkin’ chairlift to the crapper? Do what Louis XV did, build a crapper into your throne. He could take a dump while a citizen was petitioning him as he held court.

One technology I’ve personally seen have a positive impact on an elderly relative is the Kindle reader. Being able to adjust the text size of any book on the screen opened the world back up for somebody who loves reading a wide variety of topics instead of having to settle for just the books profitable enough to print in large text versions.