So an elderly family member moved into assisted living, in a facility nearby that is outstanding in all ways. But as those fingers become less agile, turning on a lamp switch harder than realized, and interacting with a keyboard and mouse are becoming increasingly less practical. All of it takes too much time and leads to too much frustration. The aging brain cannot tolerate all that wasted time and energy. It needs to conserve itself for learning new things as well as social engagement.
But we cannot forget that an elderly person is a human being who needs to be able to get things done!
Along comes Alexa.....
Time to go to sleep, already in bed but the light is on....”Hey Alexa, turn of My Lamp”
Oops, the computer monitor is still on and glowing, and the monitor button is too small. “Hey, Alexa, turn off the monitor”
Better yet....”Hey Alexa, lets setup a routine to turn these both on at 7 AM and off at 9 PM
Wait, my son put a small air conditioning unit in but its hard to get over to or manage...”Alexa, turn my AC unit off, or maybe just up to 72 degrees”
And when the person ultimately has more trouble speaking clearly, more and more of these routines can be triggered by learned intelligence, schedules, or simple gestures.
Last but not least....they can be setup under the Amazon Alexa account of a family member who could turn all those things on or off, or adjust them remotely from their home a thousand miles away
The possibilities are endless. The key is simplifying the interaction for the older person, gradually over time depending on their need