What if your refrigerator gave you breakfast suggestions? Or your bed checked you for health problems while you slept? Our aging population is spurring the creation of a host of friendly household gadgets, including everything from floors that absorb the impact of falls, to mattress pads that assess vital signs and alert health care professionals to any irregularities. Outside the home, technology is in the works to create personalized radio frequency identification cards, which can tell grocery shelves to lower to your eye level or help gym machines adjust to your ability.
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is exploring advances like these, along with the physical and emotional experience of aging, in their project “Brave Old World.”
