Embedded Files
Funny name, serious work.
As we age we are confronted with a variety of new challenges.
Inside our heads we think of ourselves as we were many years ago... but the mirror reminds us otherwise.
Still capable of contributing, still believing that we are relevant, we wonder how to manage these physical and mental changes.
To design technology, specifically technology that assists us in our daily, everyday lives without putting our infirmities on display is the gheezerTek.com design approach.
Technology is thought to be the the playground of youth... well, maybe... but maybe not. In our youth we have more time on our hands and less on our minds giving us time to investigate a great many new ideas. Historically, it is the younger generations that experiment with these new ideas. Whether it's because we don't want to be like our parents or simply because that is how youth is wired, it still remains fact.
As we age, somewhere along the way, we realize that time is getting short. We are less patient with new, untested ideas. Having spent our fair share of time in our youth with new, unproven technology we know that a great deal of it is eventually abandoned.
Just because we are getting old doesn't mean we are necessarily resistant to change. The research has shown that if you can demonstrate how a new technology can make our lives better in some meaningful way, we, the aging, will walk through brick walls to adopt it.
Resistant to change? No... but time is short so let someone else be the early adopter.
Resistant to wasting time? Yes.
We believe that gheezerTek.com's approach to technology design is age sensitive. Rather than the obvious approaches seen so frequently in popular media, we don't design products to MARKET them to aging humans, we design technology FOR aging humans. Products for aging humans, not products that scream "HEY! I'm really old and clearly incapable of existing in the modern world without giant buttons and irritatingly hideous things dangling around our necks."
Hello, I'm Jim Rowan.
My PhD research at Georgia Tech produced the first papers published by ACM that addressed the subject of "Aging In Place." This is the idea of designing technology that allows us to age in our homes and living spaces -those spaces that have provided the context in which we have lived out our lives thus far- rather than moving (or more frequently being moved!) to some kind of assisted living.
Here's the thing, I'm like most app designers, in love with inventing apps that my friends would really like. The difference is that most app designers are 20 or 30-somethings. I earned my PhD from Georgia Tech later in life (55) doing research on a topic that no one else in grad school with me at the time was very interested in... technology for Aging in Place. My research resulted in the Digital Family Portrait, support for low impact communication between an aging parent and an adult child that allowed the adult child the "Peace of Mind" required to allow their aging parents to gracefully Age in Place. Initially conducted in assisted living facilities, this research uncovered that moving to institutional facilities was rarely the aging parent's idea but rather it was the brainchild of the adult child, who, not living next door to the aging parent, had no idea how they were doing.
Aging in Place harnesses technology to allow us to remain in familiar surroundings of our long-time residence rather than forcing a move to some kind assisted living facility. You can visit some of the earlier examples of the Aging in Place work at Georgia Tech including the Digital Family Portrait, my Ph.D. dissertation.
Common think is that old people don't like change and resist new technology. This, of course, is hogwash. The truth is that you must demonstrate that the new technology is of value to an older person.
My take on this is that as we age we come to the realization that time is short; so spend your time wisely. No longer are you of an age that you have time to pursue every new thing simply because it is the new thing. Spend more time on the planet and you come to realize that there are many, many new things that look interesting at first and seem worth spending time on only to have them disappear. Spending time on stuff that first looks good only to go away is a frivolous pursuit that only the young have time for. The time has past when you can pursue the newest, coolest thing with the giddy abandon of a young person.
This is a link to the published papers written while while at Georgia Tech: Research papers.
geezerTek Research Projects in process:
Steerable Hearing
From an information processing standpoint humans are amazing... especially considering that the volume of information flowing in through our senses is far greater than what we could ever process at once, in real time. To handle this crush of sensory data we do what Herb Simon refers to as "Satisficing." Satisficing is paying attention to just barely enough information to successfully navigate the world. Don Norman divides this into that which we must pay attention to, "Knowledge in the World," and that which we must memorize, "Knowledge in the Head."
Humans integrate their senses in ways that make it easier to navigate the world. Consider our sense of hearing. Our ability to hear seems like something that stands on it's own that can be studied separated from the other senses. It can be, but unintegrated study will only get you so far. Hearing alone, most people are surprised to discover, cannot distinguish between a sound created directly in front of you and one created directly behind you. This ambiguous situation is disambiguated by integrating vision with hearing. If something is making noise and something in front of you can be seen to move, most likely the source of the sound is in front of you. If, however, something is making a noise and there is nothing in your visual field can be seen to move, then you had better look behind you!
Steerable Hearing is a sensory integrated technology that uses your eyes to direct what you want to focus your hearing attention on.
Consider this common situation:
You enter a crowded, noisy room and try to follow a friend's conversation. Even though you can technically hear them, you can't separate their voice from all those other voices in the room. Steerable Hearing helps you keep engaged in the conversation, even in a crowded, noisy room, by allowing your eyes to direct your hearing attention.
View a video presentation of the above.
Niagara
(Help for guys over 50 who are having a hard time getting a "stream" started at the urinal)
Notice:
If you are under 50 and not a guy you can easily find something else to read that is far more interesting than this
.
You still here? Well.. you've been warned!
Here's the thing. As a guy ages things change.
One thing that invariably happens is you need "to go" so you go to the bathroom and then, nothing happens.
I mean you have to go but you just can't get anything started.
This is an app that runs on your iPhone that plays the sound of flowing water to "assist" you in getting a stream started.
View an article on the Mental Floss site concerning the above concept
Future development resources: AppleWatch design page
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse