Now A Virtual Meal Technology For Lonely Souls
This bit of news may come as a huge relief to all old-age people who live alone, far from their busy children. Harvey Bumpus whose wife died more than a year ago, doesn’t like to eat alone. But his family is scattered across the country and he eats alone most nights, by heating up a simple meal of oatmeal or hot dogs.
But now the technology consulting company Accenture is in the process of developing a system called “The Virtual Family Dinner” that would allow millions of families to get together virtually as often as they like. The concept is quite simple. Suppose an elderly woman in California makes dinner for herself and when she gets ready to sit down and eat, the system detects it and alerts her son in Chicago. The son then goes to his kitchen, and a small camera and microphone capture what he is doing. There are speakers and a screen, that allows him to hear and see his mother, who has a similar setup.
Dadong Wan, a senior researcher in Accenture, Chicago labs says, “We are trying to really bring back the kind of family interactions we used to take for granted”.
Experts feel that such interactions could address a growing problem in the elderly who eat alone, as they don’t eat enough or eat the wrong kind of food, and could have a host of physical and mental problems that may become life-threatening.
The prototype may be available in about two years, and will cost around $500 to $1,000 per household.