The ageing population and residential technology are starting to collide, and that’s about to change them both.

While we’ve all heard the warnings, a few statistics are worth remembering: there will be 4 million Australians over the age of 70 by the middle of the century – half will be living alone after 85 and about the same number will have some sort of disability, many of them severe.

Add to this news from the US Census Bureau that the world will soon have more old people than young ones for the first time in human history, it’s all about to become a lot more urgent.

One of the first priorities will be to establish who will pay for things once everyone’s retired. But, just as pressing is how we’ll keep older people out of costly hospitals, retirement villages, aged care accommodation and nursing homes.

Technology could provide the answer. It may already be playing a role in fighting disease, global warming, hunger and poverty, but for assisted living applications it appears to be providing at least some of the answers sooner rather than later.

The impact of older people on the cost of health care is now expected to soar, with predictions they could help push it up by nearly one quarter over the next twenty years.

Luckily, this is a problem attracting a lot of attention from governments, universities, consumer groups and big business, most notably the IT and consumer technology companies who can see a potentially huge market on the horizon.

“It’s still a little unclear just how significant technology is going to be in old age and there’s a big gap between where we are now and where we need to be,” says University of NSW Centre for Health Assets Australasia associate professor Dr Catherine Bridge.

“But you only have to think how far we’ve all come with technology in just the last ten years to realise that it’s going to be a central part of our lives from now on in some way.

“How we make it effective and practical with older people, even the baby boomers, is still what we need to sort out.”

One area of technology that is getting a lot of headlines is the power of artificial intelligence (namely, robots) to take over the chores of daily life and even the actual physical challenges of just walking around.

The United Nations (UN) says we can expect huge growth in the use of domestic robots – in 2007 there were an estimated 4.1 million already in use, in a market estimated to be worth around $10 billion a year.

Nowhere has this been more evident than in Japan; not only is it aging faster than anywhere else (one third of the country will be aged over 65 by 2050), but their love affair with all things high-tech has helped push acceptance of the robotic solution.

A recent survey of Japanese artificial intelligence (AI) research indicated that around 90% of it was being directed at the older population, ranging in scope from intelligent ‘toys’ for companionship to biomorphic walking suits, robot attendants, and nurses and carers.

But, despite major companies like Honda, Fujitsu and Toyota increasingly ramping up their robotics research and development, there is probably a long wait before we see affordable examples that can not only work independently, but can learn on the job and do it all safely around frail people.

There’s also a fierce debate in the AI community on whether we need cyborgs that resemble humans or merely work like machines that can be programmed to do the tasks we need them to do.

“The robots and other big gadget ideas get the media coverage, but it’ll be a couple more decades to make it into homes or aged care,” says Intel Australia Digital Health Group industry development manager Dr George Margelis.

“Much more likely is the introduction of intelligence into our home environments through greater connectivity and simpler devices.”

And that’s already happening.

Big system changes in IT-related areas like e-health records and tele-health monitoring are all receiving more government attention in Australia these days and, crucially, more funding.

The aged care industry, both private and not for profit, is also beginning to register the benefits of technology to help manage facilities, create efficiencies and improve the quality of life of their clients.

One such example is the new $30 million development in Brisbane by aged-care provider PresCare, where technology has been embedded from day one. Not only do rooms come with video-on-demand, Foxtel, free-to-air TV, and internet protocol phones and radio, but RFID bracelets and building sensors help keep residents and staff in touch at all times.

“Expect this approach to get a lot more common,” says Aged Care Association of Australia (ACAA) chief executive Rod Young.

ACAA represents nearly 3,000 of the country’s ‘for profit’ residential and home care companies.

“There’s a lot more interest in how technology can improve the way we do things, both in aged care accommodation and in keeping people at home much longer,” he says.

Certainly it’s the average home and the need to keep people independent that’s becoming the hot market as major IT and consumer electronic companies realise that a lot of wealth is tied up in the older demographic.

One of which is Intel, whose new, five-year, $250 million partnership with GE will further develop home technologies that have a strong emphasis on remote and more personalised health care for older people.

Through the partnership, the first device to be marketed in Australia – the Intel Health Guide – is an interactive, online device that includes vital sign collection, patient reminders, surveys, multimedia educational content, and video conferencing and alerts.

But, this product appears to be just the start, certainly if the latest Consumer Electronic Show in the US is anything to go by. In a sign of the times, the organisers of this year’s CES also ran the first ‘Silvers Summit’ dedicated to a high-tech old age, showcasing everything from a wireless connected body strap to specially designed mobile phones.

Online living
As research and products start to make headway in the market, it’s becoming very clear how important broadband will be to them all.

Home connectivity looks like being the one crucial ingredient in how we can age at home longer, the key to remote health, as well as communication, safety, leisure, advice, education and even employment way past the normal retirement age.

This all became a lot more viable with the announcement of the roll-out of the National Broadband Network, and promised average household speeds of 100Mbps in tandem with the growing adoption of laptops, smart phones, gaming devices and other online gadgets by older people.

At present, the fastest growing group of internet users in Australia is aged 65 to 74, according to the Bureau of Statistics. Further, a study by research group McCrindle found that up to 60% of people over 65 were using the net for news, banking and communication.

What has also taken many commentators by surprise is how fast older people have taken to social networking, with recent figures showing that social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have experience strong growth among older users.

The adoption of many of these technologies has started to blur the line between what is a purely assistive technology and a device with universal appeal that is designed and built for a mass market.

For Catherine Bridge, that’s at the heart of the issue.

“Assistive technology is now a real grey area,” she says. “A lot of the technologies we’re taking for granted in our lives, like an electric toothbrush, a smart kettle or vacuum cleaner, are proving to be just as effective at keeping us independent longer.”

Certainly this has been the experience of David Hurt, who, at 72, had long resisted computers, but found a whole new digital world opened up to him once he became involved with the Australian Senior’s Computer Association (ASCA).

“Once I couldn’t tell the difference between an email and a web site, but now I mostly use email to stay in touch with people and I am tutoring other people on computers,” he says.

“I also use the web to find out information like booking accommodation or finding which caravan parks are pet friendly.”

“I’m still getting used to texting on the mobile, but I got an iPod for Christmas and I’m looking forward to learning how to use that too.”

But, not everyone is convinced that we’re about to see a digital revolution in aged care, or, in fact, that one is needed.

Sue Slattery from the Independent Living Centre in Sydney says several low-tech changes can do as much to keep people safely at home as the high-tech gear that is increasingly being marketed to older people.

“Cost is always going to be an issue for older people with any sort of technology and even getting broadband may need to be seen as worth subsidising,” she says.

“The other big issue is the way technology is designed. This needs a radical re-think as gadgets are unnecessarily complex and hard to use with any sort of disability.”