Mobile Technologies for Elderly People

3. Motivation

The use of mobile phone became essential role in today’s societies for both young and old people. However, as people get older their mental and functional capabilities start to decline gradually. Elderly might have difficulties reading small text-messages in small-screen mobile devices. They might also have difficulties when pressing buttons as they might suffer from arthritis. Dialing or remembering close relative phone numbers is an obstacle for elderly who suffer from dementia due to attention and memory-loss. These are some of the many issues elderly are facing when using cell phones.

As we have indicated previously, the number of elderly is increasing at a steady pace around the globe, and the need for a mobile device that address their needs become necessary for today’s market. Many projects were devoted to study and investigate the important factors to include when designing mobile devices or applications for elderly, and these studies where adapted by the elderly market.

There are various kinds of hardware and software devices designed and introduced in the marketplace. In this chapter we will demonstrate some of the hardware and software available in the market and recent projects designed for elderly (Kobayashi, Hiyama, & Miura, 2011).