Aging-In-Place Advancements For seniors living at home, technology has developed that allows them to live at home longer and more safely. “It will be significantly cheaper to use these kinds of systems instead of going to a managed-care facility, even if they can only stay in their home for one or two more years,” Pedigo says. Examples of this aging-in-place technology include bed sensors, medical equipment that emails statistics to doctors, and motion sensors that alert family members in the event of irregular activity. As a benefit of putting these technologies in place, much more data will become available for research than is open to scientists today. “We will be able to mine the data, which can help lead to better management and possible curing of many of today’s illnesses,” Pedigo says, “The drawback is certainly the intrusiveness of all aspects of our daily lives recorded as data.”
Ultra-High-Definition & Transparent Televisions “In the last decade we’ve gone from analog to digital, from digital to highdefinition,” Pedigo says. “The big trend from television manufacturers right now is the ultra-high-definition televisions.” Ultra-high-definition televisions have four times as many pixels and the potential for better color saturation than today’s TVs. Over the next year, “we’re going to have better TVs, they’re going to continue to get thinner and consume less power and be larger,” Pedigo says. Televisions might also be seethrough soon. Transparent televisions will make it possible to transform and manipulate the visual landscape of your living spaces, Pedigo says. “There will probably be a little camera on the other side of it to record the weather and those sorts of things, so if yesterday was beautiful and today not so much, you’ll just hit the yesterday button and you won’t have to look at it pouring outside; it will be beautiful and sunny.” october 2013 inside columbia
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