Personalized Care of the Elderly with Voice Assistants

There is a rapid growth in the aging population worldwide, particularly in the growing economies such as Europe, Japan, and China. Statistics reveal that between the years 2000 and 2050, the percentage of the world’s population above the age of sixty will considerably grow from 12 to 22%.

During this period, people above 80 years are likely to quadruple. Geriatric diseases include atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes, dementia, and osteoarthritis. These health conditions require continuous supervision, quick diagnosis, and quality care by a professional caregiver.

The need for assisted living for the elderly is on the rise, but on the other hand, there is an active lack of trained healthcare professionals. Studies indicate that the US will experience a shortfall of physicians and healthcare professionals by 40,800 and 104,900 by 2030.

To match this increase in demand, Healthcare providers are bringing in AI-based automation. From tracking biometric information to early diagnosis of disease, understanding treatment plans help clinicians to treat conditions more effectively.

Especially in elderly care, voice-based AI models should be a combination of environmental and psychological sensing (for monitoring the status of the environment and the senior). AI modules for intelligent services include activity recognition, reminders, proactive suggestions, health coaching and actuators, intelligent interfaces, and robotic platforms for assistance.

Voice-enabled technology facilitates assisted living for the elderly. It encourages dialogue-based interaction with the machines and helps deliver valuable care.

What is a dialogue-based interactive device/ voice-controlled device?

Voice assistants are the devices/ apps that use voice recognition technology, natural language processing (NLP), and AI to respond to humans. The device synthesizes the user’s message, segments it, evaluates it, and provides a meaningful human-like response.

There are two main categories of AI voice assistants -

• Generic, like Siri and Alexa
• Bot voice assistant — This is integrated into a cognitive app/website to help the users guide its services.

47Bilion has worked on such consumer-facing voice applications (cognition-based companion applications). These solutions do not directly enable clinicians and caregivers with diagnosis and treatment but play an essential role in care delivery. These voice-enabled assistants allow patients with medication reminders, almost like having a healthcare attendant at home but using a voice assistant instead.

How voice controlled dialogue systems work?

Conversation user interfaces (CUI) or voice user interfaces (VUI) replace the graphical user interface (GUI) in voice assistants. The usage context must be linked to requirements for these systems to react to various questions.

Dialogue systems use NLP to analyze speech in text form and to understand the intent of speaking. After identifying the purpose, it sends the request using underlying API connections. NLP uses text from multiple languages and Text-to-speech engines to convert these languages, generating text from speech that NLP then uses.

Either the text is used for output or converted back into spoken language using speech to text engine.

Possibilities with Voice Assistants

IoT and AI have made controlling actions an easier task.

Adding an intelligent speaker with all the smart devices could be significant. Just a voice command is enough! However, these intelligent voice-based devices don’t work alone they work collaboratively with an application. We can use this collaborative functionality for two categories of residents -

The Elderly

Getting old comes with losing some of the physical, mental, and emotional capabilities. For the elderly, these changes often bring resentment and depression.

Smart home technology cannot replace human assistance. However, there are new and innovative cognition-based companions to make the life of isolated seniors easier.

A smart speaker with a voice-activated assistant can become helpful to seniors who live alone as a tool and a digital companion. These smart speakers are easy to use and help improve seniors’ day-to-day lives. Voice assistants can become administrative, clinical, and emotional support systems.

• Administrative — voice assistants can remove all the gaps in internal and external community-wide communications. For example, communities struggle to circulate information, and residents with memory loss and mobility limitations may forget the announcements. The voice assistants help with event reminders to them.
• Clinical-smart speakers help the elderly to manage their personal healthcare needs such as exercise routines, medication reminders, checkup routines, etc.
• Emotional — the voice assistant helps send messages to their loved ones and also helps in simplifying communication between them and their family members who live away from them. It prevents isolation and loneliness.

Disabled Patients

Thanks to IoT, a fully accessible home has been easier in recent years. Today there is no need to adopt a disability-specific device to perform any task. IoT and smartphones can do this for any disabled person. For people suffering from a chronic disease, whether it is sclerosis, arthritis, or any other condition, reduced physical movement can cause a problem in their daily routine at home. The rise of a smart home where all devices are interconnected can improve accessibility and be a life-changing option for people with disabilities.

The critical change for many disabled people is introducing an alternative to typing information into a device and moving towards a world where input via voice to a smart speaker or personal assistant on a wearable device or smartphone.

This helps make their homes accessible to foster self-reliance and get an opportunity for a better life. Integrated systems such as Amazon Alexa, Google assistance, and voice enable cognitive applications disabled people can expand their capabilities.

Assisted Living

Today, several smart devices help the elderly and people with disabilities improve their quality of life. Smart speakers coupled with voice assistants are life-changing innovations for these individuals. These voice assistants allow members to speak as they communicate daily about what they need or request any information they seek. They will get an immediate response.

From an accessibility point of view, voice-controlled, home-based intelligent personal assistants (IPA) can use speech interaction for dictation, screen reader output, and virtual assistance.

When we talk about the collaboration of smartphones and IoT, we get a picture of people making their living spaces convenient, but this is not a complete outlook. Senior adults look forward to this tech collaboration to make their lives independent, more accessible, safe, and healthier.

Voice assistants are not the only devices that respond to verbal requests. They are a point of communication between you and the network of connected devices.

The voice assistant is the hub of your smart home; it streamlines your relationship with technology. It has an interaction paradigm that provides an interface that allows users to save patterns of information (e.g., check the weather, ask for an appointment, add a shopping list), control home appliances, and home lighting, lock doors and perform a range of online activities.

Voice Technology for Senior Living

There are several reasons why specific senior living advisory organizations should choose voice technology to help in improving residents’ health and life. Apart from being a cutting-edge technology, it can aid isolated residents and people with limited mobility. Here are some benefits -

Conclusion

The voice-enabled technology has been a breakthrough in elderly care as they accomplish tasks simply through voice commands. Older adults, service providers, and caregivers are adopting voice-assisted homecare for its simplicity and usability. As life expectancies increase, the elder will spend more time at home. Voice assistants are going to help their lives more comfortable and connected.