A conference on how technology can be used to help keep the elderly healthier and working longer is underway in Vancouver.

The seventh World Conference of the International Society for Gerontechnology, whose theme is "technologies for health, quality of life, and aging-in-place," has attracted about 400 participants from around the world and is hosted by Simon Fraser University's Gerontology Research Centre.

Dr. Gloria Gutman, founding director of SFU's Gerontology Research Centre and head of the university's department of Gerontology, said this week's Statistic Canada prediction that old people will outnumber young people in Canada by 2030-40 shows the importance of gerontechnology.

Keeping people healthier and working longer

"One of the implications is that with fewer younger people there will be a need to keep older people working longer and a need to keep them healthier longer. We will need technologies that will be good for all ages," she said.

Gutman said the term gerontechnology covered a wide range of technologies, from helping caregivers looking after frail and elderly people to the emerging smart technologies that could be installed in homes to monitor a person's well-being.

Smart technology sensors could pick up subtle changes in an older person's every-day behaviour, she said.

"They could show the onset of an illness which we may be able to prevent from deteriorating," she said. "It's a very broad field." Approximately 80 papers will be presented, covering such topics as aids for dementia patients and their carers, housing and institutional design, health management and using technology in everyday life and the user aspects of gerontechnology.

Among some of the exhibits at the conference will be Nao, a robot developed by the French company Aldebaran Robotics.

Smart technology

This 58-cm tall "humanoid" robot with computer and networking capabilities that responds to voice commands will demonstrate how it could be a help for seniors in their daily lives.

In her written message to the conference, provincial Minister of Healthy Living and Sport Ida Chong congratulated the "many researchers, service providers and policy-makers who are dedicated to the health and safety of older persons in our province and around the world and whose work already has an enormous and positive impact."

She said such conferences serve to encourage and promote technical innovations that address older people's ambitions and needs.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Vancouver+conference+aims+keep+elderly+healthier+working+longer/3079480/story.html#ixzz0pD8U7rBG
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