Age Tech at CES 2021

CES, the world’s largest tech show, has been around for over 50 years, and while it is possible to find tech for older adults in several product categories at the show and among innovation awards winners and honorees, finding age tech companies or products could feel like an easter egg hunt. So where do you begin?

AARP Innovation Labs Booth

One of the most interesting places to visit, if you’re an age tech enthusiast is the AARP innovation labs’ booth. 

Exhibiting for the 3rd straight year, AARP featured 9 startups they are working with to promote innovation in aging. The startups featured are in a wide range of categories – from end of life and estate planning to fall detection, the full list can be found here. 

Innovation Award Winner

Voiceitt, a developer of speech recognition technology for atypical speech, won a “Best of Innovation” award in the accessibility category. I have been following Voiceitt for several years and have always thought their product was extremely important and impactful. In a world in which voice user interfaces become more and more common, their solution is a great way to make technology more inclusive. Certain medical conditions that are more common in older adults, like Parkinson’s disease or a stroke, can impact people’s speech patterns. Parkinson’s disease is the second most common age-related neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s disease, it affects about 1% of the population over the age of 60. Regarding strokes, about 75% of them occur in people over the age of 65, and Voiceitt’s technology aims to help stroke survivors communicate with voice activated devices.

Innovation Award Honorees

OrCam, known for its game-changing AI artificial vision and hearing devices that assist the visually and hearing impaired, has been named a “Best of Innovation” honoree in the accessibility category for its OrCam Read digital reader. 

CarePredict’s TouchPoint (the companion to their wearable, Tempo) has been named a “Best of Innovation” honoree in the health and wellness category. TouchPoint is a remote activity monitoring app that provides peace of mind to families through visibility into their loved one’s well-being.

Another company that was named “Best of Innovation” honoree in the health and wellness category is Vayyar. Vayyar Home is the world’s first contact-free PERS solution for senior care facilities and older adults that want to age-in-place while protecting their privacy, providing 24/7 monitoring.

New and Noteworthy – Product Launches

Hearing loss and falls are hot topics in aging, and a huge challenge for older adults, family members and care providers. AI enabled hearing aids made a splash at this year’s show, the most interesting one is by Oticon. The Oticon More, the world’s first hearing aid with an on-board deep neural network. According to CNET, the deep neural network inside the hearing aid is trained on 12 million real-life sounds, meaning it can process speech in noise more like the human brain does, and gives the brain more information needed to hear sonic details. More hearables that were presented at CES 2021.

It is no surprise that two companies chose to launch fall detection solutions at CES2021, the surprising (and innovative) part is that they both chose to place their tech inside a lamp! The two solutions that were showcased are Domalys’ Aladdin and the Nobi Smart Lamp, check out their video: