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from the I've-fallen-and-I-can't-get-up dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
The team of researchers at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), in collaboration with the Department of Geriatrics at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU), are developing a system that monitors the health conditions of the elderly. The system consists of several sensors and a controller—a portable device on a neck strap—that automatically calls for help in the time of need.
According to Eurostat, almost one in five persons in the European Union (EU) is aged 65 or over (19.4 percent). This represents a population of nearly 100 million people. It is estimated that by 2070 the number will reach 29 percent. Therefore, the need for technologies, which provide nonintrusive monitoring of the health of the increasing amount of population, are constantly growing.
"With this system, the elderly can feel at peace and safe at home. They don't need constant supervision. The developed technology is well suited for clinical treatment and can also be implemented in various geriatric institutions," says Egidijus Kazanavicius, a professor at the KTU Faculty of Informatics, one of the authors of the technology.
The system is consisting of stationary sensors mounted indoors and a small wearable 3-5 cm high device. It is constantly monitoring the health conditions and body position of a person. When it senses that the person has possibly collapsed, the system sends a signal to those listed as emergency contacts.
"We aimed to create a system that would record the patient's position, body posture, and movement indoors. If something goes wrong, the person falls, or any other problem occurs, the controller will record the patient's collapse and the alarm will automatically be transmitted," explains Prof Kazanavicius, the Director at KTU Centre of Real-Time Computer Systems.
The controller with the integrated Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) module identifies the location of a person as accurately as one meter. The system was primarily designed for the installation in medical facilities, but now it can be implemented at home.
"Having access to the Internet is required but not a necessity. Emergency calls and notifications can also be sent via GSM," says Prof Kazanavicius.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @11:21PM (9 children)
Seniors caused climate change and deserve nothing. Babies are upset about this but their vote is being suppressed by conservatives. All ages should vote, each weighted by the inverse logistic function of the age.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @11:35PM (8 children)
Seniors didn't cause climate change, millennials did.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday September 25 2019, @01:07AM (7 children)
Most people of any age caused jack squat. Climate change is largely caused by a handful of very very rich people and the businesses they control.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 25 2019, @01:31AM (6 children)
Righto. Because those rich people and the businesses could get where they are even if "jack squat" people wouldn't consume/pay for what rich people and their businesses produce.
So easy to discard personal responsibility, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 25 2019, @02:02AM (2 children)
So easy to discard personal responsibility, right?
Yeah! If you're democrat... The "Russians" did it!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 25 2019, @02:49AM (1 child)
Not much different from the "Not me - fake news", "illegal aliens" and all the dodges a certain orange clown uses, is it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 25 2019, @04:27AM
The orange clown was voted in by the seniors over 18 years old. Time for the rest of us to vote this time buddy.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday September 25 2019, @03:44PM (2 children)
Of course they could. For example, some of the worst offenders are military contractors, who don't need to convince the vast majority of people to buy their stuff, they need to convince a few hundred Congresscritters, the president, and a few dozen folks in the
toyprocurement department at the Pentagon.By all means cut down on your driving, reduce your use of plastic, improve your home's energy efficiency, etc etc, but even if you manage to get to zero carbon you're still not holding a candle to a single F-35.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 25 2019, @05:00PM (1 child)
Depends on what you hold the candle for.
To build one? I don't believe is that "expensive".
To operate it? You may be right here.
But I tell you what, tho'. I don't believe all the cars driven in US emit less than the entire US military.
army - 2017 - 59 million tons [forbes.com]
ytanspotystion [epa.gov] 2017 - a bit shy of 2000 millions CO2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 25 2019, @10:43PM
"ytanspotystion" that's a good one - teaches me right to post half asleep and use my forehead to type.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by black6host on Tuesday September 24 2019, @11:21PM (6 children)
Us old folks still like to get one's ashes hauled every once in a while so just because we're laying on the floor and jerking around it doesn't mean there's anything wrong! Ever think of that, huh?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 24 2019, @11:48PM
Yes, but think of the exhibitionists among us. Now their activities can be broadcast to EMS!!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 25 2019, @12:22AM (3 children)
Don't forget to not involve that "portable device on a neck strap" when you are having your "ashes hauled" and you'll be fine. Or dead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by black6host on Wednesday September 25 2019, @12:42AM (2 children)
Hmmm, I think you give too much credit. Memory? Don't forget? :)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 25 2019, @01:01AM (1 child)
Ok. Then let's get rid of the double-negative and put it like:
Easy, eh?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 25 2019, @09:29AM
Wasn't there an ad like this back in the '80s or so? Can't quite, remember. Or get up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 25 2019, @02:17PM
Yes, but you might need assistance beforehand when Viagra isn't quite doing the trick?
"Help, I'm ballin' and I can't get it up!"
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Tuesday September 24 2019, @11:46PM (4 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 25 2019, @01:31AM (3 children)
Are the brewers at risk of passing out on the job?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by lentilla on Wednesday September 25 2019, @01:58AM (1 child)
At a guess - brewing produces copious quantities of carbon dioxide.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 25 2019, @01:54PM
Drinking the brew along with pizza produces copious quantities of methane.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday September 25 2019, @08:17AM
However, there are ladders and high walkways, falling is always a risk. Heavy loads too, and warehouse-type errors. So being knocked out, and unable to press an emergency button on a talisman is taken seriously. Of course, there are a whole bunch of chemicals that won't knock you out too, it's not a particularly risk-free profession. Handy hint, told to me first hand: if the lye is out and you think you may have splashed it where it shouldn't go - go to the emergency shower *immediately*, it might save you a skin graft later.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 25 2019, @12:17AM (22 children)
Wasn't there an "as seen on TV" product that did this, like 40 years ago?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by SomeGuy on Wednesday September 25 2019, @12:42AM (18 children)
Yea, but it didn't post their status to Facebook(R)(TM) and Twitter(R)(TM) back then, and as everyone knows, those are the only way to communicate, so nothing in the past matters. Besides, now everyone can feel safe and secure leaving the old people alone to die by their miserable selves.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 25 2019, @01:26AM (13 children)
Boomers were more or less the first to fly the coop and leave the old folks back on the farm - they've had no problems ignoring their parents at all, tech, no tech - they didn't even bother calling except maybe three or four days a year. I've got early-boomer parents, they treat their kids about the same.
If you really care about granny, you can cover her nursing home suite in web-cams, and have the motion sensor AI alert you when she doesn't leave one spot for too long.
Back before cameras got cheap, retirement parks used to wire up the refrigerator doors to a central monitoring system - if the door hasn't opened in more than 24 hours, it's time to go make sure that everything is o.k.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday September 25 2019, @01:58AM (1 child)
Not sure if it was really Boomers or Silent Generation, but let's just stick with Boomers since they're fun to put down. Boomers were also the first generation, by and large, that couldn't leave someone to stay at home on the farm (or in the City, although that really picked up in Gen X) and watch over Mom or Dad due to a reduced number of kids. And bear in mind that Silent generation and before had no tech by which to keep up with the kids so it's no surprise that Boomers would have been raised that way and then raised their kids that way... Gen-Xers were the first generation actually raised by people who lived with the technology age from birth.
It's only been in the last couple of decades that the concepts of motion tracking and remote telemetry of health data has been around at all (really post-Apollo...)
And even if you're Johnny-on-the-spot-bug-your-Granny-day-and-night (which most Seniors wouldn't like any more than never being contacted), unless your occupation is to follow that person around 24/7 there will be sometime when you aren't watching. That's when the accident (or death) will happen.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 25 2019, @02:27PM
Another fun way that statistics commonly lies.
While most people may have come from large families, most people did not themselves have large families. So, if you have 12 kids - sure, the youngest daughter can stay home and take care of momma in her old age, and, BTW, that daughter is probably going to die a spinster.
If you look at the population growth curves, they didn't really take off until the 1950s, just about the same time the 2.1 child "nuclear family" came into vogue, along with divorce remarry new kids with new spouse, oops we did it again, plenty of families intentionally having 3 and 4 kids, etc.
Back when it may have been common to come from a family of 6 or more, most people had one child or less that lived long enough to have children of their own - so those people were SOL in their old age. But, when the "new deal" came around in 1935, I believe the number of people living beyond age 65 was something like 5%, so... that's one way to keep the nursing homes empty: keep the cemeteries full of freshly turned earth.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday September 25 2019, @12:41PM (10 children)
The greatly increased mobility of the Boomer age is not a pure good. One loses touch with people that aren't around.
But what is missed is that mobility is one of the great leveling forces of economics. Rather than being stuck in perpetual poverty on a "farm", the old folks' children could move to where the opportunities were.
How is that caring for granny?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 25 2019, @01:03PM (1 child)
Yeah, you and W (Bush) can go f yourselves with that, too.
Mobility is the excuse for sending people cross country in search of ANY kind of work, severing all social contacts and support networks just because it's the only option outside of unemployment and living on government assistance. When the economy tanked, W made a big deal about how we were "Stronger for it" when tons of families had to uproot and move cross country, or face serious long term unemployment - yeah, stronger economy, money flowing to the moving companies, real estate agents, etc., but socially: NOT.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 27 2019, @12:10PM
If those "social contacts and support networks" were so much better, then why move? Mobility is a great way to route around all kinds of bad things. Your state is extremely racist towards you? Move out. Your state is bombing economically? Move out. Too much crime and your family isn't safe? Move out.
I get you think something was wrong there. Dubya has the wrong attitude and being forced to choose between bettering your life and unemployment, etc is somehow a bad choice to have - like how choosing to lie down in a road shouldn't be so bad for your health.
I think there's a couple of your posts that illustrate your myopia here. Your take on risk [soylentnews.org]
As I noted at the time, most societies have a similar choice, choose a life with more risk or one with less. And it's interesting how you complain about a choice by characterizing it as a lack of choice. Are you really supposing that you would have more choice, if you couldn't choose how much risk you took on? It's not some paradox of choice where you're failing to choose between a million hamburger variants because you just can't decide. It's a single dial - more risk or less.
And the hundred productive acres [soylentnews.org] thing.
I notice here that you don't mind abandoning "social contacts and support networks" when you get a hundred productive acres in exchange. Everything has its price.
The thing here is that moving is a powerful, extremely varied choice. And it's one of the big choices that has allowed us to progress and make our lives better. I think a great exercise here is to look at the great people of history, not the tyrants or warlords, but the ones who made life better. Almost none of them moved. Sure, you can find a few, like say Archimedes who just happened to be born into a place that would stoke their talents and which has the problems that those talents can solve. Everyone else has to move to learn and move to fix things.
This is where the leveling effect comes in. People move to the places with the opportunity and wealth, thus, getting part of that for themselves and reducing wealth/income inequality.
In a very important way too, not moving is stagnation. What happens to the people that live their whole lives near where they were born? They tend to be insular and ignorant with little understanding of what goes on past their little world. Even merely moving in a single fair-sized country exposes you to different cultures and ideas. And you already have noted that "unemployment and living on government assistance" is a common economic lot of people who don't move.
Finally, there is this thing called the telephone. It's not that hard to maintain some degree of "social contacts and support networks", should you be inclined to try. That people don't indicates to me their opinion of the value of those things.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 25 2019, @02:12PM (7 children)
Caring is a multi-faceted thing, not usually completely covered in a sound-bite sized sentence. Whilst one productively works in the world, one cannot always "be there" for granny, but with the cameras and AI monitoring, one can be notified almost immediately if there is a problem that involves lack of motion, or, with sufficiently strong AI, anomalous motion. What one does with this information is entirely dependent on the family culture.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 27 2019, @12:14PM (6 children)
Which has what to do with caring? Most people don't like to be monitored 24/7. Your granny may be one of those people.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 27 2019, @02:27PM (5 children)
Speculative, and pointless.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday September 28 2019, @03:17AM (4 children)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday September 28 2019, @04:24PM (3 children)
If granny doesn't want it, some families will respect that, some won't. Some grannies "did what was right" for the kids/grandkids when they were growing up, whether they wanted it or not, and some kids give that tough love right back when granny starts showing up on the floor in the morning with multiple fractures because she slipped on the way to the toilet. All very individual, and of the millions upon millions of grannies in nursing homes across just this country, you have all kinds, including millions who are video monitored in some form or another, whether they want it or not, and millions more who just lie there in a puddle of urine and feces until somebody finally gets around to checking on them.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday September 29 2019, @03:48AM (2 children)
In other words, another pointless non sequitur dissolves in a puff of illogic, perhaps due to a fall in the bathtub.
So what? Nobody dies pretty. If my folks want to go that way, I'm cool with it. I'll respect their choices more than I respect some feelz about how they went out.
Here, I find it interesting how you go straight to a very intrusive way of "caring" for an elderly relative. Sure, we could set up a panopticon as some sort of symbol of our caring (or more likely lack of caring). Or we could just use far less intrusive monitoring devices that get the job done without this huge sacrifice of freedom.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday September 29 2019, @01:55PM (1 child)
Only when it is called for - of the six elderly family I have been in some way involved in caring for during end-stage, four were around when video monitoring was "a thing"... none of them had it because none of them needed it in their particular situations. One, who left us before the internet was big, bought herself into a nursing complex (of 100% her own choosing) where the nannies did watch over her through things like the refrigerator door switch, and the "security system" motion detectors, which were of course 99.9% to watch over the residents and 0.1% to alert for unexpected intruders.
Good for you, and your folks - check back when it's all over, life has a funny way of changing attitudes when the shit really hits the floor. Sometimes it goes as you envision it, usually not.
More a recognition of personal liberty, differences among people, the unpredictability of the future, and the fact that nobody has all the answers - even if some think they do.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday September 29 2019, @10:58PM
I see you never mention such a situation.
Back at you on that. In my defense, I've already had a fair bit of shit to shape my attitudes.
Not in the least. You didn't even think if it would do the job (video/microphone doesn't measure any medically relevant conditions aside from unusual periods of staying put and maybe noise outbursts - when seconds count, help is only hours to days away!) or consider the unintended consequences (horrible blowback such as the elderly relative's life quarters turned into a hacker's porn studio).
It's peculiar how you started your contribution to this thread with an off-topic, weird anti-Boomer rant and then segued into this surveillance fantasy. Sorry, your spiders in the head aren't my inability to cope with mortality.
My view on this is that the technology of the story is a reasonable balance between privacy and saving lives. A lot of people die because they're alone and nobody knows they're in trouble. This helps with that in a very timely manner. But it doesn't create the potential for crazy information leakage of peoples' lives like your proposal did.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Rupert Pupnick on Wednesday September 25 2019, @01:57AM (1 child)
Thanks to the Internet, you’re never really alone... even if you wish you were.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 25 2019, @02:30PM
Cut the wires, light the fires.... and the global warming police will come put them out.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Wednesday September 25 2019, @06:52AM
I remember all the "life alert" commercials from the past...
So now, instead of using a monitoring service, the device posts to Facebook/Twitter, "Help, I've fallen and can't reach the keyboard for a status update."
Of course now, seniors do not have to pay a monthly fee to a monitoring company, but a cloud service instead. (and the owner rakes in more money because less humans get paid.)
The real question is when does a "PleaseRobMe" like website goes up... "Find incapacitated seniors in your area... ripe for stealing their valuables."
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 25 2019, @03:33PM
Just the thing to save druggies dying from overdoses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 25 2019, @02:32AM
Isn't that an ad for Viagra?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 25 2019, @01:55PM (1 child)
Do you mean . . .
Help! I've felon and I can't get up!
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 25 2019, @02:08PM
No, that's the Lawyer ad:
Help, I've felonied and I can't get off.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Demena on Wednesday September 25 2019, @01:25AM (4 children)
They are (poorly) reimplementing an Apple Watch?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 25 2019, @07:55AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 25 2019, @10:01AM (2 children)
Can't sell Apple Watch as a medical device. And seniors won't be able to figure out how to turn the lifesaving features on.
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday September 25 2019, @10:10AM (1 child)
My father wouldn't wear one. 'Cause there's no button to make sure the apple watch is properly wound up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 25 2019, @01:57PM
There's an app for that!
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.