About six million people living in Florida are aged 65 and up, including an estimated 10,000 centenarians.
Leaders of “The New Face of Aging” conference, hosted recently by the Alliance for Aging in Coral Gables, Florida, singled out an Israeli technology as one strategy for healthy aging.
That technology is AI-powered companion ElliQ, named one of TIME magazine’s best inventions of 2022.
Launched by Intuition Robotics of Ramat Gan in March 2022, the proactive, voice-activated ElliQ tabletop robot is designed to keep seniors mentally stimulated to combat loneliness and enable them to live independently at home as long as possible.
The smart device actively initiates and follows up on past conversations, plays trivia games, announces the news, encourages the user to exercise, reminds users to take their medicine, makes sure they’re eating properly, keeps them in touch with family and friends, selects music tracks and even tells jokes. (It is not a fall-detection or emergency device.)
ElliQ is now offered for free to people 60 and older in Broward County, Florida, through the Area Agency on Aging. Florida’s Miami-Dade County is starting an ElliQ pilot as well.
Agencies for seniors in other states including Michigan, New York, New Jersey, California and Washington have similar programs in cooperation with Intuition Robotics, which is in the midst of a funding round.
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