Black and Decker has introduced a smart healthcare assistant named Pira for the elderly living alone at home and a Wi-Fi router that works apart or together with the assistant.
Black and Decker, a home appliance brand famous for power tools and home improvement products, has introduced a smart healthcare assistant for the elderly living alone at home and a Wi-Fi router that works apart or together with the assistant.
The digital assistant, Pria, is designed to monitor the elderly’s life patterns in less intrusively. It lets caregivers know whether the elderly has taken the medications, drunk enough water, gone to bathroom regularly or had enough exercise, without cameras and sensors installed around the house.
The device features a round screen supported by a base and several cameras. The screen can show videos or two eyes making Pria a face, while the base provides a space for dropping pills daily.
One camera with facial recognition technology is used to check whether the right person is taking the pills, a second one and a sensor check whether the pill cup is taken out and moved back, and a third one checks whether the pill-dispensing wheel correctly functions.
The back of the device can store up to 28 doses of medication in the pill form. Caregivers can schedule the pill-dropping time from the Pria app. If the pills aren’t taken properly or other issues occur, caregivers will receive notifications through the app.
Another device announced by Black and Decker is
Omni, a tri-band Wi-Fi mesh router based on the 802.11ac standard. It can work alone as a router or bring other features when working with Pria.
An accessory called Pria Pods works as a Wi-Fi node to extend signals as well as a motion detector to check how the elderly is moving around in the house - how they’ve been drinking water in the kitchen or when they’ve left the bed. It detects motions without the elderly feeling their privacy being invaded.
As a router, Omni provides cyber security, device quarantine and privacy mode for multiple devices.
Pria will cost about US$500 with a monthly subscription fee of US$40, and Omni will be sold for US$299 and US$5 per month as a service fee. Both devices are scheduled to be launched in the summer of 2019.