Meet the Electronic Neighbor

Red Wing Technologies is developing one that could help seniors live at home longer.

JUNE 2004

Grim truth: for the elderly who live alone, there are things that seem worse than death. One is a lingering end after some crisis leaves them unable to call for help. Another is that loved ones will find them several days after that end has come. For their families,there is the fear of an injury or death that could have been prevented if they'd insisted on a move to a care facility. None of that is exactly why Red Wing Technologies, based in Minneapolis, began work on a project that could help the elderly live independently and safely -- longer. But it is some of what Red Wing principals Bryan Fuhr and Alan Shilepsky have learned in the course of their work so far.

They're working with a recently awarded $100,000 Small business Technology Transfer grant from the National Institutes of Health, whose ultimate goal is to reduce health care costs by having fewer people in extended care.

Fuhr and Shilepsky are also working with what they call a "real-life, rural model. "In a small town, says Fuhr, the way concerned neighbors know if "Agatha" is OK is that they see her step outside to get her newspaper every morning. Using the increasingly robust sensing technology that’s available, and wireless capability, Red Wing proposes to create an "electronic concerned neighbor." A series of sensors that detect drawers or doors opening, or movement in rooms, would communicate with a base station in the house. That device would inquire whether the person living there wanted help if it noticed a lack of activity, and phone a personalized list of contacts unless it was overridden. (Adventium Labs, in adjacent offices, is writing algorithms that give the system its smarts.)

Shilepsky notes that Red Wing's prototype is designed to keep all the sensor data in the home, but another thing he and Fuhr have learned from their research is that most seniors don't care-- they'd be willing to sacrifice some privacy for peace of mind.