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Mobile Technologies for Elderly People

Mobile Technologies for Elderly People

Muna S. Al-Razgan (Information Technology Department, College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia), Hend S. Al-Khalifa (Information Technology Department, College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia), Mona D. Al-Shahrani (Information Technology Department, College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia), and Hessah H. AlAjmi (Information Technology Department, College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia)
Copyright: © 2015 |Pages: 9
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-5888-2.ch032
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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).

Key Terms in this Chapter

Smart Phone: A mobile phone with more advanced computing capabilities and connectivity than a feature phone.

Mobile Application: An application developed for portable devices. Generally, can come preloaded on the handheld device as well as it can be downloaded by users from application stores or the Internet.

Facebook: A popular free social networking Website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues.

Elderly People: Consist of people whose ages nearing or surpassing the average life span of human beings.

Launcher: A program that provides shortcuts to the main mobile phone programs.

Social Network: A Website that connects a group of people with each other.

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