Wednesday, March 14, 2012

No. 460: Smartphones with various functions for the elderly (March 15, 2012)

Technology
Smartphones are spreading explosively worldwide. However, the elderly sometimes have difficulty handling them because they require initial setting as if they are a PC. Fujitsu developed a smartphone specially designed for the elderly. The company selected Google’s Android for its operating system. Besides simplifying the setting, the company narrowed down the preinstalled functions and incorporated the microphone technology to compensate high notes that people have difficulty hearing as they get older.

With the help of cloud computing, the new smartphone offers various services and functions. It allows the users to provide their health management data to medical institutions by letting them working with scales and sphygmomanometer, record exercise volume using the built-in pedometer and sensor, and transmit the usage history of the elderly automatically to their family members to keep them informed of their whereabouts. The company is scheduled to put the new smartphone on the domestic market this summer, and in the U.S. and Europe toward the end of this year. It plans to increase the shipments of mobile phone 30% to10 million mobiles phones in 2013.      

No comments:

Post a Comment