Gerontechnology Implications and Opportunities for Networks

Dr. Bill KearnsAssociate Editor, Gerontechnology Journal

Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute Department of Aging & Mental Health

University of South Florida

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Two Trends Driving Gerontechnology Development Networks are getting faster (we all knew that!) Baby Boomers are getting older

By 2050 20% of the population will be over 60 Striking differences exist between regions. One in 5

Europeans is 60 or older, but for Africans 1 in 20. For the first half of the 21st century the proportion > 60

in developed countries will reach 1 in 4 and for some countries 1 in 2.

(Source: Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations Secretariat)

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The Dependency Burden Old-age dependency ratio: number of working age

persons (age 15 - 64 years) per older person (65 years or older). It’s used to indicate the 'dependency burden' on potential workers.

Between 2000 and 2050, the old-age dependency ratio will double in more developed regions and triple in less developed regions. Potential socioeconomic impacts on society from an increasing old-age dependency ratio is a hot area of growing research and public debate.

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Census 1975

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Census 2050

1 year in a nursing home = $59,000

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Gerontechnology defined

“Fitting technological environments to a vital, productive and happy life up to a high age.” Health & Self-esteem Housing & Daily Activities Communication & Governance Mobility & Transport Work & Leisure

Source: James L. Fozard, Ph.D.

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Opportunity Knocks/Activity Compass

Patterson, D., Etzioni, O., Fox, D., Kautz, H. (2002). The activity compass. In: Proceedings of UbiCog ’02: First International Workshop on Ubiquitous Computing for Cognitive Aids, Gothenberg, Sweden. Downloaded from http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/djp3/AI/AssistedCognition/publications/compass03tr.doc on 1/26/06

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Electronic Monitors

Electronic pill reminders Electronic health monitors (Health Buddy)

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Smart Houses

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Ultra Wideband RF Tracking

Converts any home into a smart house Can be integrated into alarm systems Can provide LBS Is accurate to less than 20 cm Can generate enormous amounts of data in a

short time

Ref: Kearns, W, Moore D.H. (in press) RFID: A Tool for Measuring Wandering in Persons with Dementia. In A. Mihailidis (Ed.) Aging and Technology. IOS Press

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Networked Robotics

Saito, T., Shibata, T., Wada, K. & Tanie, K. (2003). Relationship between interaction with the mental commit robot and change of stress reaction of the elderly. Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation. July 16-20, Kobe, Japan.

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Dementia tracking systems… Outdoors: GPS based networked services for

finding lost elders who wander from nursing homes

Indoors: Ultra-wideband RF systems allow placement to within 20 cm within a building so the movements of a person with dementia can be better understood and predicted

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Whither Internet2?

All the systems I just discussed were networked. The data is just lying there waiting to be analyzed.

We can either learn or not. High speed academic networks must be extended to

those natural labs (home/ALF/NH). We can perform cross cultural comparisons-networks

span the globe. We don’t have much time! We’re all getting older!

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The Future Gerontologist?

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