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PARIS, France (International Herald Tribune), August 28, 2008:
BASICS
By Eric A. Taub
In the 1960s, members of the American postwar baby boom generation, like most young people, couldn't wait to leave home. Today, those boomers are trying to figure out how to stay at home long past the age when their parents moved to retirement homes. Companies that have long profited from this transformation are creating products that could help them do that.
Here is what you have to look forward to as you enter your 60s and 70s: Deciphering conversations at cocktail parties becomes difficult, you can't remember where you put your keys, and your grandchildren think you're a computer klutz. Fortunately, technologies are appearing that can remedy some of these shortcomings, helping boomers maintain their own youthful self-images.
"The new market is old age," said Joseph Coughlin, director of the Age Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Baby boomers provide a perpetually youthful market" and are looking for technology "to stay independent, engaged, well, and vital," he said.
As most of them have finishing rearing their children and paying for their education, they also have a lot of money, Coughlin said, and they are looking to spend it on technology.
The companies that are successfully marketing new technologies to older Americans are not those that have created high-tech ways for seniors to open jars. Rather, they are the ones that have learned how to create products that span generations, providing style and utility to a wide range of age groups.
The obvious success story is
Apple; its iPod line is both easy to use and stylish, and its appeal crosses generations. Apple retail stores are clean, sleek and inviting. According to Coughlin, older people enjoy entering them because "the Apple stores make you feel smart."
Similar trends are found in the automobile industry. In the 1990s, the inside joke at Ford was that the Lincoln Town Car appealed to people whose next car would be a hearse. But those entering their "golden years" today are not looking for psychedelic-decorated walkers or plush-riding miniature limousines.
Automakers have moved from designing cars for older people to designing vehicles that can cross generations. Consumers with less flexible hands find the large knobs in Honda's boxy Element easy to manipulate. Honda did not design them for the arthritis-stricken but for young people who drive while wearing ski gloves, said Chris Martin, a Honda spokesman.
An important future trend, according to Eero Laansoo, a human factors engineer at Ford, will be the personalized car, a vehicle that gives drivers the ability to change instrument fonts and colors so as to make gauges and dials easier to read.
The new accident-avoidance technologies - like blind-spot detection, lane-departure warning and adaptive cruise control (which slows your vehicle down if you get too close to a car) - cross age boundaries in their appeal. Teenage drivers could use them, but they can also give confidence to aging drivers with declining motor skills.
Here are some current tech products designed for aging consumers:
The Jitterbug clamshell phone (www.jitterbug.com), made by Samsung, doesn't reveal itself as a phone for older people until it is opened to display oversized buttons and large type on the screen. One-touch buttons make it easy to reach emergency numbers. Jitterbug markets the phone to the elderly with ads that explain they can either enter their own numbers or ask a Jitterbug operator to do it for them. The company says that 30 percent of its customers choose the latter option.
Because the Jitterbug is sold as a phone for the senior citizen, anyone who refuses to think of herself as one might hesitate to use it, no matter how easy it is to use. The ads for the Pantech Breeze from AT&T and the Coupe from Verizon are a bit more subtle. They also are simplified flip phones that feature large buttons, oversized type and three programmable ICE (In Case of Emergency) buttons.
This October, Clarity (www.clarityproducts.com) will sell ClarityLife C900, a cellphone that can amplify voices by 20 decibels. A hearing aid can also be plugged into the phone, and a single red button can be pushed to call or text up to five numbers.
iRobot, the company that made a name for itself with its Roomba robot vacuum cleaner, has created the Looj, a robotic cleaner of roof gutters. The device, which sells for $100 to $170, makes it unnecessary to climb ladders.
This year, iRobot will market the ConnectR, its "virtual visiting robot" that will allow people to remotely view and speak to others. With its activities managed from a Web site at a remote location, the robot can be told to travel around a house to make sure that its occupants are safe, to read a story to a child or to make sure the Roomba is busy sweeping floors.
Another problem with getting old is forgetfulness. A number of automated pill dispensers are available that verbally alert users when to take their medication. From Timex, the Daily Medication Manager (www.timexhealthcare.com) can remind the user to take dosages up to four times a day.
Med-Time, from American Medical Alert, can be programmed to dispense 28 dosages up to four times a day. When the unit beeps, the user turns the device over to release the pills; if the dosage is not taken, the pills are locked away to prevent an overdose. It can be purchased from www.age-in-place.com.
For those who misplace items, the Loc8tor (www.loc8tor.com), starting at about $100, can find up to seven items. Small radio frequency tags are attached to an object, which is then registered on the Loc8tor's main handheld unit. When an item is misplaced up to 600 feet, or 185 meters, away, the user chooses the item from the list and a series of tones points to the correct direction.
Of course, if the main unit is lost, you may never find your keys. In which case, several lock manufacturers offer keyless home locks that use fingerprint-recognition technology. Available from companies like Kwikset and 1Touch, the units, which start at about $200, can authorize 50 or more users, depending on the model.
If you can remember all 50 users, this may be one product you don't yet need.
Copyright © 2008 the International Herald Tribune
The obvious success story is Apple; its iPod line is both easy to use and stylish, and its appeal crosses generations. Apple retail stores are clean, sleek and inviting. According to Coughlin, older people enjoy entering them because "the Apple stores make you feel smart."
Similar trends are found in the automobile industry. In the 1990s, the inside joke at Ford was that the Lincoln Town Car appealed to people whose next car would be a hearse. But those entering their "golden years" today are not looking for psychedelic-decorated walkers or plush-riding miniature limousines.
Automakers have moved from designing cars for older people to designing vehicles that can cross generations. Consumers with less flexible hands find the large knobs in Honda's boxy Element easy to manipulate. Honda did not design them for the arthritis-stricken but for young people who drive while wearing ski gloves, said Chris Martin, a Honda spokesman.
An important future trend, according to Eero Laansoo, a human factors engineer at Ford, will be the personalized car, a vehicle that gives drivers the ability to change instrument fonts and colors so as to make gauges and dials easier to read.
The new accident-avoidance technologies - like blind-spot detection, lane-departure warning and adaptive cruise control (which slows your vehicle down if you get too close to a car) - cross age boundaries in their appeal. Teenage drivers could use them, but they can also give confidence to aging drivers with declining motor skills.
Here are some current tech products designed for aging consumers:
The Jitterbug clamshell phone (www.jitterbug.com), made by Samsung, doesn't reveal itself as a phone for older people until it is opened to display oversized buttons and large type on the screen. One-touch buttons make it easy to reach emergency numbers. Jitterbug markets the phone to the elderly with ads that explain they can either enter their own numbers or ask a Jitterbug operator to do it for them. The company says that 30 percent of its customers choose the latter option.
Because the Jitterbug is sold as a phone for the senior citizen, anyone who refuses to think of herself as one might hesitate to use it, no matter how easy it is to use. The ads for the Pantech Breeze from AT&T and the Coupe from Verizon are a bit more subtle. They also are simplified flip phones that feature large buttons, oversized type and three programmable ICE (In Case of Emergency) buttons.
This October, Clarity (www.clarityproducts.com) will sell ClarityLife C900, a cellphone that can amplify voices by 20 decibels. A hearing aid can also be plugged into the phone, and a single red button can be pushed to call or text up to five numbers.
iRobot, the company that made a name for itself with its Roomba robot vacuum cleaner, has created the Looj, a robotic cleaner of roof gutters. The device, which sells for $100 to $170, makes it unnecessary to climb ladders.
This year, iRobot will market the ConnectR, its "virtual visiting robot" that will allow people to remotely view and speak to others. With its activities managed from a Web site at a remote location, the robot can be told to travel around a house to make sure that its occupants are safe, to read a story to a child or to make sure the Roomba is busy sweeping floors.
Another problem with getting old is forgetfulness. A number of automated pill dispensers are available that verbally alert users when to take their medication. From Timex, the Daily Medication Manager (www.timexhealthcare.com) can remind the user to take dosages up to four times a day.
Med-Time, from American Medical Alert, can be programmed to dispense 28 dosages up to four times a day. When the unit beeps, the user turns the device over to release the pills; if the dosage is not taken, the pills are locked away to prevent an overdose. It can be purchased from www.age-in-place.com.
For those who misplace items, the Loc8tor (www.loc8tor.com), starting at about $100, can find up to seven items. Small radio frequency tags are attached to an object, which is then registered on the Loc8tor's main handheld unit. When an item is misplaced up to 600 feet, or 185 meters, away, the user chooses the item from the list and a series of tones points to the correct direction.
Of course, if the main unit is lost, you may never find your keys. In which case, several lock manufacturers offer keyless home locks that use fingerprint-recognition technology. Available from companies like Kwikset and 1Touch, the units, which start at about $200, can authorize 50 or more users, depending on the model.
If you can remember all 50 users, this may be one product you don't yet need.
Copyright © 2008 the International Herald Tribune
