Videoconferencing ties seniors with families

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The Giraffe is expected to hit the market in the second half of 2008 and carry a retail price of between $1,800 and $3,000. Although the Giraffe will be marketed to businesses, Sandberg noted that consumers will be able to buy it directly from HeadThere.

While the Giraffe, Virtual Dinner and TEEVE systems have yet to make it to market, a number of other videoconferencing systems are already available, but they're largely geared toward the corporate user.

One of the more consumer-oriented videoconferencing systems is the D-Link DVC 1000, according to CNET Reviews.

Debby Thompson, a 57-year-old grandmother from Columbus, Ohio, uses Apple's iChat to stay connected to her two grandsons, ages 6 and 8, who live in Mexico with her eldest son.

"Four years ago, when the kids moved to Mexico, I began using iChat to make calls. When they added video capabilities, I bought a (Webcam). It's a great way to see the kids grow up," Thompson said. She has even baked cookies with her grandchildren via videoconferencing.

"The boys were in their kitchen with their father's iBook (laptop), and they watched me, as I instructed them," Thompson recalled. "It was really cute. They said, 'Can I use this pan? Can I mix this?'"

But while baby boomers like Thompson are at ease with the technology, she noted that her 86-year-old father from Michigan and 87-year-old mother-in-law from Cleveland, Ohio, are less adept.

"My mother-in-law would be thrilled to see her great-grandchildren (by videoconferencing). But computers can do the craziest things, and it's hard to give her help over the phone," Thompson said. "My parents didn't grow up with computers, so you have to have someone who's computer-savvy living nearby."

Thompson said her other children, a daughter who lives in her hometown and a second, younger son in Mexico, live too far away from her mother-in-law and father to be of technical assistance.

In the meantime, she keeps in contact with her two grandchildren via iChat and hopes to one day use the technology with her younger son.

"I used to have video chats with my younger son, when he lived with the older one, but now that he's moved out, I probably won't do much video chatting with him, until I want to see who he's dating," Thompson joked. "I'll want to see the live version."

[afterhours]

Just having audio and video is enough

I'm not sure I get the driving need for this. Even if we could
have hologram representations ala starwars, it's kind of 'what's
the point' for the technology. We've been hooking families up to
multichat AV conferences using cheap MacBooks, iMacs and
iChat -- just having the audio (and the video, even if its not 'life
size') brings huge dimensions to remote family members. But
having a virtual dinner seems -- kind of bizarre. A MacBook
takes up a lot less space; you only need to set one placemat out
for them -- to invite a whole gaggle of family to your supper
table. No extra software, not even a team of IT professionals
waiting in the wings. That technology, and the warmth it brings
(and the portability) seems far more practical than the picture
painted by this piece.

[eGenerations]

video & people

Integration of communication methods for all ages is going to blur the invisible division between cross-generational experience sharing.

eGenerations.com ,a website built for ages 50 & up is also exploring these, and other methods to bring the strengths of people & their experiences together.

Nothing incites progressive thinking, and evolution quite like the sharing of experiences between those who have walked the path, and those who have not. This basic sociological function produces more knowledgable people by passing down history in a very personal manner, and help us from repeating it.

Nathaniel Adam Briggs, CEO/Founder, eGenerations.com