Frank Engelman
My Articles on Tech-enhanced Life
Needed a Large Clock Due to Vision Loss
A number of my relatives need a “special” clock, for a variety of reasons. I set out to find them one, but both the physical and app versions I found fell short of what we needed in various ways. So, … I developed a special “Time Clock App”.
How to Use Amazon Omni Fire TV for Video Calls
Amazon recently announced a Fire TV Omni Series that features Alexa Calling & Zoom Meetings built-in…. no need to add a Fire TV Cube! Longevity Explorer Frank Engelman has tried it out, and shows how to set it up for one of his “older adult” relatives.
Smart Living Room Features for Older Adults
This article covers several smart living room features that author Frank Engelman has found useful for family members or friends — and that focus on challenges of particular relevance to people as they age.
This is part of our Smart Home Features for Older Adults series, in which we share specific recipes and kit lists for individual smart home features — organized on a room by room basis.
Smart Kitchen Features for Older Adults
This article covers several smart kitchen features that author Frank Engelman has found useful for family members or friends — and that focus on challenges of particular relevance to people as they age.
This is part of our Smart Home Features for Older Adults series, in which we share specific recipes and kit lists for individual smart home features — organized on a room by room basis.
Smart Bedroom Features for Older Adults
This article covers several smart bedroom features that author Frank Engelman has found useful for family members or friends — and that focus on challenges of particular relevance to people as they age.
This is part of our Smart Home Features for Older Adults series, in which we share specific recipes and kit lists for individual smart home features — organized on a room by room basis.
Smart Bathroom Features for Older Adults
This article covers several smart bathroom features that author Frank Engelman has found useful for family members or friends — and that focus on challenges of particular relevance to people as they age.
This is part of our Smart Home Features for Older Adults series, in which we share specific recipes and kit lists for individual smart home features — organized on a room by room basis.
Smart Home Kit Lists
As we explore various smart home solutions useful for “better aging”, we get requests for some specific “kit lists” that contain a collection of the products needed to implement some of the DIY solutions found on this site.
This page is where we keep the lists of products for each of those “kits”.
Smart Home for Seniors: What, Why?
What is a “Smart Home for Seniors“, we wondered? And how is it different from a normal smart home? And who would want one, and why? And, can you just get some specific smart home features relevant to you — in your current house? Or do you need a whole new house?
This article explores these questions.
Alexa Questions & Answers
After writing several “How To” articles, relating to Alexa and related products, explorer Frank Engelman has been getting quite a few questions about things not covered in those articles. This page is to collect some of the common questions, together with detailed “how to” answers.
Tablets with Simpler User Interfaces: Interview
After completing a comparative evaluation of products in the category we call “senior-friendly tablets”, lead reviewer Frank Engelman was interviewed by Richard Caro, co-founder of Tech-enhanced Life.
Alexa Care Hub: How To Advice
Amazon has a new feature in its Alexa artificial intelligence (AI) app called the Alexa Care Hub. It has the potential to help quite a lot in a situation where you are worried about, or caring for, someone who lives at a distance, and on whom you can not just "pop in" yourself — like your parent, or elderly relative, for example.
We are getting quite a few emails suggesting it is not at all easy to set up in certain real life situations. So we wrote this article to introduce you to what the Alexa Care Hub can do, and help you get it working successfully.
Best Senior Tablet: How to Choose
This article is about a category of product marketed as senior tablets, or tablets for seniors. We explore which type of person would benefit from a senior tablet, rather than a more mainstream product like an iPad, and how to decide which is the best senior tablet for a specific life situation.
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My Background:
I graduated with a MSEE from California State Sacramento in 1974 and started working at a local ultrasound company that was acquired by GE Medical Systems in 1979. I spent the next 10 years working on medical ultrasound doing hardware design and software programming. When GE decide to move the operation back to their headquarters, I remained in Sacramento as a consultant to them and other companies.
In 1990 I joined Intel in Folsom, Ca as a software group test manager and then moved into their Windows Client IT group as a programmer. After several years, an Innovation Center Group was formed, and I worked on testing new products for home users and the elderly population.
When Intel and GE formed a partnership in CareInnovations, I assisted them on several projects
I retired from Intel in 2011 and have been pursing my dream of helping seniors and their family with suitable technology. I recently have expanded that into providing solutions for those with vison, hearing, and mobility difficulties.
Being 76 myself, I get to test a lot of the solutions on myself before recommending them to others. Along with my sister, a retired RN who lives in a retirement community, we get to deploy a lot of my solutions to the residents and family members.