Technology giants are increasingly eyeing senior care as aging Americans are choosing to live independently in their homes, according to CNBC.
Four notes:
1. Americans in their 60s and 70s are becoming more likely to live independently at home, rather than in assisted-living facilities. However, given that they're at a higher risk of suffering a serious medical event — such as a fall, heart attack or stroke — their children often want to monitor their routines.
2. Greg Yap, a venture capitalist, spoke with CNBC about his experience taking care of his aging mother, who lives in an independent living facility. He's been experimenting with new technologies, such as using Amazon's Echo to set medication reminders, Nest's thermostat to sense motion and Silver Mother's monitoring tools for pill boxes, front doors and mattresses.
3. It isn't just consumers cobbling these devices together — technology giants have taken notice.
Alphabet's smart-home division, Nest, is actively pitching its products to senior living facilities, and Amazon recently sent employees on a cross-country bus tour to investigate how to make its devices more helpful for elderly populations. The newest Apple Watch features fall detection, a particularly useful capability for someone wanting to monitor a senior living alone.
4. Mr. Yap told CNBC he thinks that although the technologies available today are useful to care for the senior population, there's still no central platform that makes it easy to manage them together.
"I really do think the core technologies are there," he told the publication. "But someone just has to weave them together and make it easier to install them."