Taiwan Mobile unveils Granny-tracker smart bracelet State-of-the-art smartwatches and wearables are garnering many of the headlines at the Mobile World Congress this week, but in Taiwan a local operator has a different idea – a smart bracelet designed specifically for the elderly. The wearable device is fitted with NFC technology so that the user can swipe it over an NFC- …
Still need to remember their NFC enabled Smart Phone though !
Plus thats now two mobile devices which need remembering to charge
But then again most elderly (Alzheimer's or not ) tend to avoid smartphones as too complex in my experience
If they remembered to take the phone - couldn't they just press an SOS button on the phone or one of its apps
The bracelet does provide an identity to a third party, helping a lost and possibly distressed Alzheimer's sufferer.
Not sure why it needs a smartphone to be around, though: put the squawk chip (it need only be an SMS message) into the watch, and a 'please contact' message on the screen thereof.
(Actually, as described: what happens if the patient picks up the phone with the wrong hand? And aren't you asking a distressed/confused/possibly incompetent patient to perform a fairly complex task?)
> And aren't you asking a distressed/confused/possibly incompetent patient to perform a fairly complex task?
Perhaps they should reverse it, make it a dead-man's switch: when the patient goes into a confused state and can no longer do the wrist/phone swipe correctly, then fire off the alarm message.
I thought it was saying something else; if I find a distressed stranger wearing one of these bracelets, I touch it with MY phone and it contacts their relatives or a care agency. Then what? I dunno, they read my location, they phone me back, we discuss the ransom money...... (joking).
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