Ambitious Techies Roll Out Robots, Smart Gear for Seniors

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas showcased assistive gadgets designed for seniors, including personal-assistant robots such as the ElliQ, reports the Chicago Tribune . ElliQ features a movable smart speaker and a tablet screen, and the speaker moves by itself when communicating with a user to convey body language and illuminates during certain actions to signal it is paying attention. The tablet will show music, send messages to ride-hailing apps, and deliver closed captioning responses so users who are hard of hearing can read what ElliQ says. "The reason the social robots struck me as something for the senior-care market is that I see them as something like smartphones," says retired computer programmer Barry Sardis. "Smartphones are multi-functional, and there is a broad range of requirements and desires from the senior community." AARP's Connect2Affect says more than 8 million Americans older than 50 are affected by isolation, which is a "growing health epidemic." Gerontologists say many tech startups, run by young entrepreneurs eager to serve a demographic often overlooked by the industry, do not always understand older adults' true needs. "The devices are generally designed by younger folks, and many of the devices are very complicated to use," notes University of California San Francisco Professor Carla Perissinotto. "Unless they are going to be designed by or with older folks, there is a high chance for failure."