Make the McKenzie Connection!
Make the McKenzie Connection!
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My 96-year-old aunt describes her eye problem as: "I have glaucoma and macular degeneration. I'm seeing an Ophthalmologist as well as a Retinologist and they told me there was nothing they could do for my degrading eyesight. However, they gave me a test with a special light held at an angle to make the print on a test card look much better."...
Your parent or relative lives far from you, or for whatever reason in person visits are not realistic. You have a way to talk with them via video already. But now you want something you can actually DO together "virtually."...
As we age, we tend to forget not only where we leave physical items or upcoming events, but also important memories such as names, past events, and locations. Alexa has a built-in feature called "Remember this" that may prove useful in recovering these memories....
I am unsure what features to include, or how to set it up so it is as useful as possible. There are a number of "How To" articles on Tech-enhanced Life relating to Alexa....
Helping family members who are technology-adverse, with their technical problems, has always been tough, but becomes even harder when they are remotely located or in an isolated facility. Part of the problem of remote support is "seeing" what they are seeing and "controlling" what they are doing......
There is a lot written about how important it is to get a good night's sleep. But how do we measure our sleep in the first place, so we can monitor whether it is "good", and whether any things we do to improve it actually make a difference?...
Now that "Zooming" is a verb, knowing how to make video calls via Zoom is becoming an important life skill. The truth is Zoom is extremely easy to use, which is why it became so popular during COVID. But some people still have difficulties with some aspects....
Which products and services can help an older adult live independently, and with autonomy, as long as possible?...
How do you set up and maintain some type of mutually convenient calendaring solution that maintains the right balance between "collaborating" and "helping" and "keeping things simple"?...
We want to avoid water leaks altogether. Or, if that is not feasible, we want to get alerted as soon as possible after a water leak starts leaking, so we can intervene and minimize damage. https://www.techenhancedlife.com/problems/avoiding-water-leaks...
Looking at gifts that will enhance TV viewing? Recently, a product called the Amazon Fire TV Cube has become available. However, the Amazon Fire TV Cube is not so simple to set up, and so I have developed this "How to" guide to help other people like me set up a Fire TV Cube for their friends, relatives, or aging parents. I include instructions for how to enable various features I have needed for the solutions I have created for my friends and relatives....
This article covers several smart living room features useful for family members or friends - and that focus on "challenges" of particular relevance to people as they age. In the living room, the smart home features we are gravitating toward are more about "enhancing life" than "overcoming challenges". Here are the key smart living room features: Entertainment: Better TV, Consolidated remote Controls; Automatic Music, Video, Photos; The Amazon Echo Show also makes a great couch-side device...
Suggested Solutions Smart Thermostat, Dementia or Poor Vision I needed a smart thermostat to help overcome problems of an elderly relative with dementia and low vision. I ended up creating a solution that combined a commercially available thermostat with some DIY automation using Alexa. https://www.techenhancedlife.com/solutions/smart-thermostat-dementia-or-poor-vision...
Kitchens are especially important for smart home features because there are some quite major things that can easily go wrong if you are not completely on the ball. For example, the stove being left on - leading to a house fire - is the classic, oft-cited example. Based on the personal experiences of my two Aunts and my sister-in-law, I have seen the need for a "stove minder" There are two basic types of stove minders, reminders and stove shutoffs, that will help your loved one in case they tend...
The problem Once or twice a month I leave the stove on after fixing breakfast. Most of the time I realize that I have left the stove on but it may be an hour or two after breakfast. I worry about what might happen as a result of this forgetfulness. I would suspect that this problem is not limited to Baby Boomers and other seniors. However, I would think that the older you get the more likely it is to be a problem. It didn't become a problem for me until the last couple of years. Background...
