Idea: Shopping Advisor

So to take this whole thing a step further I have come up with an idea, and I've decided to use Mrs Singh (Major Singh's wife) as a user to help me describe the idea.

As we have heard Major Singh loves his Meat, curries and chapattis, however Mrs Singh's recipes don't involve the healthiest of ingredients let alone giving Major Singh a balanced diet, adding further to Major Singh's diabetic and high cholestorol health problem. To solve this problem there is a piece of technology that could be used to ensure that Mrs Singh provides Major Singh with a diet that is not only tasty but healthy, in essence it's a shopping advisor. This touch screen device sits on the trolley and will give the choice of allowing it's user to choose healthier options.

So what does Mrs Singh have to do? Well it's really simple Mrs Singh swipes her store card in the trolley device which will then log her into the system, it will know what she has bought in the past and all her shopping habits. If it's the first time that Mrs Singh is using it, it will ask a few questions in regards to any allery suffers and health issues that need to be considered when giving her choices. In this case Major Singh's cholestrol and sugar intake are the main concern. Once this is done Mrs Singh floats around the shop floor in her usual manner and picks up the same foods that she would normally, if she scans in these products it will give her information about the product such as the usual callories, fats, sugars, etc etc. It will also display extra information that sometimes is not available on the packets due to their size, a common example is Major Singh's eldest son, Randeep, is a great fan of Kit Kat, Mrs Singh scans in the Kit Kat chocolate to find that Randeep should really cut down on his intake of 46 packets a day, it also allows Nestle to give a description of what the chocolate tastes like, in this case the information on screen states:

"Kit Kat, neighbours escaped from their padded cell? Pet Chi Wow Wow eating kitchen knives? House on fire? Compiler errors? New job as Ronald MacDonald getting you down? Whatever the occassion, have a break, have a Kit Kat. This delicious chocolate bar is the fix that will get you through the day, the four slices of waffer covered in milk chocolate and the love of Nestle workers that goes into making this simple formula, is a chocolate suitable for all, even your granny!"

On entering the fresh poultry isle Mrs Singh picks up a chicken and scans it in, on screen flashes the usual options as mentioned but also a recipe option that allows Mrs Singh to choose recommended recipes that she could cook for Major Singh. She touches this button to find an array of recipes available, the shopping advisor was clever enough to take into account that Major Singh health problems and filters the search to show recipes with little or no sugar and fat. Mrs Singh decided that as it is her anniversary tomorrow, it would be a great idea if she had a romantic meal with just Major Singh. After scrolling through the various recipes she selected the chicken curry. The shopping advisor asks her the following questions, How many people is this meal for? Knowing that Major Singh was crowned the "1969 Chicken and Chappati Champ" she said 4 people.

The shopping advisor then tells her all the ingredients that she needs and what isle she can find it instore. She then whizzes through all the isle that contain the ingredients and ticks of all the items on screen as she picks them up, thankfully the system has made sure that everything is in stock before recommending her the item. She then pays for the items and goes home.
Once at home she prints logs into the store web site and prints of her recipe ready for Major Singh's special meal.

Idea: Bringing High-Tec to the Old Age

After having a discussion with my enlightened group members on my initial shopping trolley idea ;-) ….

Here’s a more adventurous approach to the concept, not sure how technologically feasible it is though.

Ok so you can imagine a pensioner with a remote control in their hands following the trolley or some other moving mechanism slightly in front of them carrying their shopping (check out my image above) (like a kid with his remote control car)

….using a remote control will be tricky for them as their senses and reactions are very slow, so they might cause damage to other pedestrians and possibly motorists depending on how crazy they get with remote...again if you can imagine …

So after Jats idea…. installing a small micro-sensor chip in the old persons shoe, jacket, a card in their purse/wallet or even installed into their actual body…. this chip would then correspond to a sensor placed on the moving trolley, which will react to movements of the old person, so whenever they STOP…. the machine STOPS next to them, when they go LEFT, the machine moves LEFT and so on.

I think this idea maybe for the wealthy in its early production…if it ever makes it… someone like Tony would possibly go for it unless he gets his shopping delivered the old bugger!
But when the technology is more standardised then I guess someone like Maureen or Mr Singh can start thinking of getting one.

Here’s a link to something that’s already been developed - http://www.physorg.com/news10706.html

Idea: New Generation of Laptop!!

I don’t like to brag, but my physique compares that of Arnold Schwarzenegger the former Mr Universe. With muscles bulging from every limb, I find menial everyday tasks such as driving a tractor and picking spinach from the farm exceedingly straightforward to achieve. However, carrying my laptop for a mile puts great strain on my shoulders, back, hip, knees and ankles. If a middle aged man, in the peak of physical fitness struggles, it is inevitable that an elderly person will struggle even more and would be detrimental to their body and joints.

I consequently decided to hold a focus group at my granddads social centre, which have weekly computer sessions to improve their awareness with the computers and the internet. All the members of the focus group were not very computer literate, but knew how to perform basic web browsing tasks. They all acknowledged the invaluable use of the internet, but also stated that even though small and light laptops were available on the market, they would not purchase one because of a range of issues.

The focus group brought forward the need for a lightweight laptop, but which had a sufficiently sizeable screen for elderly individuals with poor eyesight so that they would not have to strain their eyes, and a keyboard sufficiently large enough so that people with arthritis would not hit more than 1 button at once. This results in a paradox, a laptop with a large keyboard and screen, yet small so that it is easily transportable.

After a discussion and brainstorming event within the group, the overall consensus came to an idea of a compact laptop mirroring the size of a standard mobile phone. The small device would have the capabilities of a projectable keyboard, which is already widely available on the market, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2000/dot_life/2326077.stm. The device would also incorporate a projectable screen, the advancements into such a small projector would be a debatable issue to whether it is currently technological viable.

Idea: Modify The Brain!

“…I mean Phinder, could you dial your uncle’s telephone number” (translated from Punjabi).
Before the “…I mean Phinder”, my grandmother mentioned the names of my 4 other cousins.

Our ability to recall what we’ve ‘recorded’ in our memory generally deteriorates during the body’s natural ageing process.

My proposal (not to be tested on my gran – I prefer keeping her brain active by playing connect-4, teaching her Portuguese and how to send emails to her sons at work) stick a chip in their brain!

It may sound like a wacky idea from a James Bond movie but something similar has been implemented already. I read an article a little while ago about a man was paralysed after a knife attack. He was unable to move any of limbs from the neck down. A chip was inserted into his brain that was connected and able to control an artificial limb.
During tests, he was successfully able to move the artificial limb, not with full accuracy, but I think even this basic movement is rather impressive.

So this is what we do…
The area of the brain that is activated when we want to store an ‘object’ in our memory, we insert a chip. This chip activates a photo camera that is placed, lets say, in a necklace (for comical purposes, I will imagine it is placed in between the eyes). Whenever the chip detects some signal in a particular area of the brain, it takes a photo. So when Gran, is at the supermarket, and forgets whether or not there were Murray Mints in the drawer at home, she simply recalls what she saw on her mobile phone!

Here’s a CNN report that discusses some technology used to help paralysed patients:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/04/10/cybernetics.profile/

Idea: Speed Granny!

A speed accelerator for elderly motorists.

I know we all get frustrated when driving behind a slow driver. It can be a very annoying experience.

The majority of the time, the culprits of slow driving are elderly motorists. It is very common for older drivers to drive at 20mph in 30mph zone or even 30mph in 60mph zone. The reasons behind slow driving is because elderly drivers become more pre-cautious in their old age. Also diminishing senses (eyesight, hearing, touch) have a big impact on their driving skills

An idea we discussed in our brainstorm was a speed accelerator for elderly motorists.

Cars owned by elderly people would be installed with devices that control the speed of the vehicle.

The device would have 'Satnav' functionality, so the road that the vehicle is travelling on can be established. Using this knowledge, the device can establish what the speed limit is on this road.

So if the car is travelling at 20mph in a 40 mph zone, the device will increase the speed to meet the limit.

Obviously, the device will have to be user friendly, it can not just execute an instant acceleration without warning the driver! This could catch the driver by surprise and they could lose control of the vehicle.

The device could use a friendly voice that will:

1. Warn a driver if he/she is driving too slow
2. Inform driver that the device will gently increase the speed

The only thing that I am unsure of is whether 'Satnav' devices know what the speed limits are on different roads.

I welcome any suggestions on this idea, so we can develop it further :-)

Idea: The Shopping Trip

Heres a little idea of mine…not any one else’s (wink wink Jag)

What do old people like doing the most or what do you see them doing alot?

No not sleeping, not chasing young asbo kids down the street – then again I've seen the latter…

They actually like getting out of the house and going shopping…..not to the bull ring to buy some Prada but for groceries at the local market….well from my experience that’s been the case....whenever I used to go with my mom to the local market as a kid I would always see old people struggling to get their shopping home.

I did see some however who were OK in one sense, the disabled few, who had small motor cars, not sure what they call them…to go home in with their shopping.

So what if we got the older generation who walked home, to use a remote controlled trolley carrying their bags, don’t know how it would look, probably funny, there maybe issues with weak fingers, I guess you would have to make a user friendly remote control - which seems to be the whole idea of this module.

ps. i asked Maureen to smile for the camera but she wasnt havin any of it!