caregivers

HAL-5: The exoskeleton robot 'to suit you'

On March 8 and 9, 2011, just days before the largest earthquake in its recorded history literally moved Japan 8 feet, the country played host to the inaugural International Forum on Cybernics 2011 in Tokyo.

While calling the event groundbreaking might qualify as crass, researchers showcased some truly innovative ideas in the world of cybernics, an emerging field that Japan's University of Tsukuba Cybernics department describes as the "fusion of human, machine and information systems." The word itself is a fusion of cybernetics, mechatronics, and informatics.

One of those ideas, the HAL-5 exoskeleton robotics suit by Tokyo-based company Cyberdyne, is a wearable device that helps ordinary people accomplish extraordinary feats, such as lifting objects they otherwise couldn't. (We covered an earlier iteration of this in 2009.) Think of the improvements possible for caregivers, people with missing or paralyzed limbs, the elderly who want to continue living independently, factory workers, etc.… Read more

FineThanx checks on grandma so you don't have to

When Peter Scharff didn't call his grandmother on a Wednesday or Thursday, the housekeeper found the 99-year-old woman on the kitchen floor Friday morning, where she had fallen and broken her hip two days prior.

While his grandmother recovered and lived to 105, Scharff was too disturbed by the narrow miss to forget about her agonizing hours on the floor. So he and his daughter, Rachel, devised a recently-launched automated phone service that, for $34.95 a month, will call an aging loved one twice a day to check in.

The concept behind FineThanx is intentionally simple: Those receiving … Read more

Caring.com eldercare site emerges

Another tool has emerged for Baby Boomers and Gen Xers faced with caring for an aging parent or grandparent.

Caring.com, which debuted Monday, offers how-to information on caring for elderly family members, whether they live in their own home, with a family member, or in a facility. The topics include providing in-person and long-distance support, financial and legal advice, and end-of-life issues.

Caring.com features a community area for people to share care-giving tips, as well as a section where questions can be posed to various experts, such as a communication supervisor with the American Medical Response ambulance company. … Read more

Technologies to untie the ties that bind

Once a week, my younger brother calls our parents to see how they're doing. I, the not-as-dutiful daughter, am a much less frequent caller.

However, I am equally interested in their safety and well-being, and prefer hopping in the car for the five-hour trek to see them. You can learn a lot from a visual glance--such as do you "really" need to sort through a zillion pill bottles every morning and evening?

As I told my parents, there are technologies out there to help manage such tasks. They rejected my offers to buy them a souped-up pillbox, … Read more