Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by mschuster91 1601 days ago
> and it still is now.

It's sad to see how all of this tech is just doing one thing: enabling badly run "care homes" to reduce staffing count even further, and generally covering up the fact that we as a society are failing our elders.
1 comments
boffinAudio 1601 days ago
On the other hand, as an author of a Fall Detector app I'm pretty proud of the fact that a lot of my users in elderly and care facilities are now able to take a walk around the yard without needing oversight. This has enabled a lot more freedom to some of these people than you seem to be willing to acknowledge ..
link
mschuster91 1600 days ago
> This has enabled a lot more freedom to some of these people than you seem to be willing to acknowledge ..

Ideally, assuming there's no need for qualified special care like with dementia people should be able to live out their old days with their family, in their neighborhood. Not being shunted off to a senior citizen's prison in the outskirts and warded over by technology, because the kids have to move across the world to be exploited by capitalism and quality care with proper staffing is all but unaffordable for the 99%.

I agree, apps like yours or the radar piece of tech we're talking about here are a massive gain in quality of life for senior citizens who live on their own or together with their family... but let's be real: that's the utter minority where these devices will be used.

link
boffinAudio 1600 days ago
I don't share your cynicism.

I think the mmWave thing can and probably will be used to reduce staff in care facilities - but this is why apps that are freely available for use with commodity hardware will always have a market, too.

One end of the stick: care facilities optimizing for profit - the other end, families who simply want their loved ones to be taken care of, if they fall while taking a daily walk for health.

Having already shipped a fall detector in both hardware and software form into this market (over a decade ago), I can tell you there are far more families taking care of their loved ones with this technology, than there are commercial (capitalist) elderly-exploitation facilities...

link