The government is inevitably more focused on measures for the elderly.
The Noboribetsu City Council of Social Welfare (Chairman: Masayuki Yamada) will begin full-scale implementation of a watchdog network project using tablet terminals in July. The devices will be loaned to elderly people who live alone at home. They will be able to check on the safety of the elderly by providing them with one-touch operation of information on waking up, going to bed and going out.
Users said, "It was hard to get used to the device at first, but it gradually became a habit to operate it," and "I feel like someone is always watching over me.
If you're an engineer, you'll understand the concept of pinging the system to check if it's alive or dead. I think it's great that it's helping to create the feeling that someone's watching over you. It'd be great to have the option of sending out video letters from family members, like a status report.
I don't know if it is appropriate to call them "healthy people", but I feel that the level of watchfulness differs between those who have advanced dementia and those who do not. For healthy people, all you need to know is "what did you do and when? People with dementia need to know "what, when, where, and how". In that case, GPS might be the way to go, but it would be very battery-intensive to always send the current position and communicate with the device.
