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Brainstorming, Unmet Needs, Ideation

 

On occasion, when we come across a “problem relating to aging that we wish someone would solve”, our Longevity Explorers spend some time brainstorming possible solutions and fleshing out the details of the unmet need.

 

We have collected some of these brainstorming sessions here in one place, so that innovators looking for good ideas to work on can leverage our thoughts and ideas to help create useful solutions for older adults like our explorers.

You are welcome to learn from these sessions, and take advantage of them for your own projects. Tech-enhanced Life does not wish to assert any form of intellectual property ownership over the ideas themselves.

Of course, we think our community of Longevity Explorers can go much deeper into any of these topics, and add much more heft to any of these ideas if we give them the chance. We would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with any researchers or product developers who wish to use these brainstorming sessions as a springboard to further work. If you are interested in that, just reach out to us using the contact form at the bottom of the page.

Note: Some of these discussions require a “Researcher membership“. Others are available for free, but you need to login to listen to the audio.

 

Featured Research

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“Smarthome Features as a Service” for Older Adults

Longevity Explorers have reported on how they have used different smarthome features to improve the quality of life of people with vision impairments, people with hearing difficulties, people with limited...

Longevity Explorers have reported on how they have used different smarthome features to improve the quality of life of people with vision impairments, people with hearing difficulties, people with limited mobility, and people facing early cognition impairment — as well as people who just find these new capabilities “fun” and “useful”. However, at present there is a “barrier” to widespread adoption of smarthome features that can benefit older adults — the fact that most of the interesting applications require an element of Do-it-Yourself (“DIY”) capability.

We believe there is a big opportunity to broaden the deployment of these empowering smarthome features to others — by using a “smarthome features as a service” model. This Article explains our thinking, and describes a pilot project we are considering in partnership with one of the Villages in Northern California.

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Here are some high-impact, gerontechnology product concepts that do not yet exist as commercially available products — although the technology to enable them already largely exists. Our hope for products...

Here are some high-impact, gerontechnology product concepts that do not yet exist as commercially available products — although the technology to enable them already largely exists. Our hope for products like these: to significantly postpone the time at which frailty and functional disability get in the way of “living life”

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  What happens when you bring together a group of older adult Longevity Explorers and the teams participating in the Stanford Longevity Design Challenge? You get some interesting and contrasting...

What happens when you bring together a group of older adult Longevity Explorers and the teams participating in the Stanford Longevity Design Challenge? You get some interesting and contrasting opinions about what the differences should be between designing for a 25 year old and designing for an 85 year old.

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Artificial Intelligence and Robots: What Older Adults Want

  Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robots — and their potential future roles in aging — are topics of great interest to our community of Longevity Explorers. While there has been lots written...

While there has been lots written by academics, companies, and futurists about the potential of robots and AI in aged care, the voice of the older adult is generally absent from these discussions. Here are the opinions of the Longevity Explorers as to problems they wish a robot, smarthome, or Artifical Intelligence could solve for them.

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Staying Independent as an Older Adult: The Challenges

  Staying "Independent" as long as possible is one of the most important priorities for many people as they age. But what do older adults really mean when they talk...

Staying “Independent” as long as possible is one of the most important priorities for many people as they age. But what do older adults really mean when they talk of being “independent”, and what are the obstacles to staying independent?

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