Everyday Senior Companion
A helping hand for seniors in the AI era
Published Feb 16, 2024
Last Modified Mar 10, 2024
According to the World Health Organization[WHO], "People worldwide are living longer. By 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world will be aged 60 years or over." As life expectancy increases, so does our awareness of its outcome and the social, economic, and physical challenges of aging.
I volunteer as a care deacon at church, where I visit and spend time with senior citizens in their houses or senior living facilities. During these interactions, I have realized the importance of companionship as well as the effect of technology on their lives.
Everyday Senior Companion app is built with a focus on senior citizens. It is a humble attempt to repay those seniors, who have made a lot of impact in our lives and society. The app makes use of the possibilities of Generative-AI models provided by Amazon BedRock.
- Everyday Senior Companion app can save emergency contact details including name and contact number, details of medical conditions, and medications used. In case of an emergency, seniors can query the Emergency Information widget for immediate steps as their medical conditions will be pre-populated.
- The app also has a chat facility in the Emergency Chat widget in which they can chat and get real-time suggestions from an AI chatbot.
- It also works as a source of inspiration which provides a thought for the day, knowledge tip of the day, and general interest, in which users can type in anything of interest like daily news, hobbies, weather, etc.
- Groups & Forums enable the elders to connect with various peer groups based on their interests.
- Calendar and To-Do widgets help to track the list of items or events to take care of.
The app can positively affect the senior community in many ways. Some of the major details are discussed below:
- Potential benefits : On a lighter note, senior citizens can use this app as a daily dose of positivity and knowledge. During emergencies, to know about the possible next steps, they can use the app to query or interact with a real-time chatbot. The groups and forums help the elders to connect with people of their age group based on their interests. All these interactions with the app, help the elders to be aware of the latest happenings and keep them active. The major benefit of the app is that it acts as a single source of access to the various needs of senior citizens.
- Envisioned real-world application : The Everyday Senior Companion app is envisioned to be a virtual companion for seniors, who struggle to find companionship during old age. The app can be made available on Android, Windows, or Apple devices.
- Plans for encouraging adoption: The app can be integrated with other apps like Amazon Polly, Amazon Connect, etc. for advanced features that may help elders to make emergency calls or hear the audio of generated text.
Everyday Senior Companion is a Generative-AI app built with a focus on senior citizens. The app works as a daily source of inspiration, includes forums for interaction with various peer groups, provides a real-time chat facility, and works as a calendar and to-do list.
This app was built using Amazon PartyRock, an Amazon Bedrock Playground that lets you build apps In just a few steps, without coding. Various foundation models like Claude, Amazon Titan, and Stable Diffusion are used in the current app version.
Everyday Senior Companion app can be further improved with integration with other apps like Amazon Polly, Amazon Connect, etc. for more advanced senior-friendly features.
Generative- AI presents immense opportunities for innovation and progress in our daily lives. Hope this baby step of Everyday Senior Companion app creation will help to achieve more in the future, in terms of innovation and functionality.