Digital aids for elderly people: AI for All

In a little lecture room at Pettenkoferstraße 11 at the end of July, students have just five minutes to offer a glimpse of the future. A future in which artificial intelligence does not wreak havoc, but makes life easier – especially for elderly people.

Today, eleven teams are waiting to present their vision of “AI for All” in a nutshell. For a whole semester, master’s students in human-computer interaction and bachelor’s students in art and multimedia have been collectively reflecting on how to make artificial intelligence accessible and understandable for all. They have conducted user research, devised concepts, selected AI models, and built prototypes.

Integrating AI inclusively into everyday life

All this hard work has resulted in eleven five-minute presentations that show what is possible: from a digital health assistant (“Care Companion”) to a digital helper which assists with buying tickets and similar tasks; from a lamp with a laser pointer (the “virtual grandchild” who always has time for tech questions) to smart Crocs (“Smocks”) with fall recognition, to a storybook designed to combat loneliness in old age.

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“We need to talk now about how we want to live with technology in the future. We shouldn’t leave this up to the big companies, which then dictate the rules,” says course leader Alexander Wiethoff, professor at LMU’s Department of Computer Science. Although the design workshop has been around for several years, the collaborations change. This semester, LMU partnered with “Digitale Hilfe,” an initiative sponsored by the City of Munich which seeks to help elderly people deal with digital technologies in their everyday lives.

Together with artist and visiting lecturer Aida Bakhtiari, Wiethoff wants this course to contribute to an inclusive, empathetic, and practical integration of AI into society, and to show students how to work in interdisciplinary teams. “This issue affects us all,” says Wiethoff. Elderly people view AI with a lot of skepticism and fear. What happens to my data? How do I talk to technology? How do I get to grips with it? These are all questions that research, teaching, and society should grapple with, reckons Aida Bakhtiari. “We need this exchange, always. Social coexistence depends upon it,” she says.

Bakhtiari volunteers at Digitale Hilfe and organized the communication of the students with the elderly people on site. “People shouldn’t feel they have been left alone with their problems,” she adds. An astonishing number of senior citizens signed up for the project, recounts Bakhtiari. Some of them are even sitting in the audience today. They too want to catch a glimpse of the future, want to know what is awaiting them.

Digital help box that can talk

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“Hello, I’m a digital help box. Insert a topic card and off we go!” comes a voice out of a wooden box. Tea Barisic, Jonas Thomsen, Isabel Fisher, and Emilia Blättel are at the lectern presenting their ‘first-aid’ box for all kinds of questions. Beside the box there is an array of topic cards in different colors, which are designed to look like large floppy disks. When they are inserted into the wooden box, the AI assistant begins to speak: “We’re cooking today. Recipes, kitchen tips, what can I help you with?” In addition to the cooking card, there are cards for travel, online banking, telephone, smartphone, internet, sport, and baking. The group wanted to design a prototype that users can talk to, which creates trust and exudes calm – a physical object that helps elderly people overcome the feeling they might have of being overwhelmed by technological innovations.

Thomsen was responsible for the technology. His main aim in the project was to find out which AI language model delivers the best and fastest answers. After trying out more than ten models, he decided in the end for the Meta AI Llama 3. “The product is fully fit for use and pretty much ready to go,” he explains. Moreover, there were no data protection concerns, as the AI is processed locally and not connected, say, to the cloud.

“We shouldn’t be afraid of AI,” says his colleague Barisic. “In many cases, it’s there to help.” The group wants to motivate elderly people to come into contact with AI. “I wish I had something like this for my own grandparents,” says Blättel. “I’d feel more reassured knowing my relatives have something at home that works.”

Many students here feel the same way. Whether it is a digital fact checker or a learning app (“DigiFit”), all projects seek to help senior citizens in their everyday lives. “Bürger Buddy,” for example, is an AI assistant that helps users fill out digital forms, while “Digi-Post” facilitates keyboard-free communication by scanning handwritten letters and sending them by e-mail.

Smart Scanner

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One of the last projects to be presented gets a particularly enthusiastic reception. Lisa Deschler, Gaman Thach, Louis Zimmermann, and Amy Grindau present “SmartScan”: a scanner with haptic buttons which scans complicated documents – from user manuals to official letters – and then explains them in easy-to-understand terms.

The group has already put some thought into marketing and shot a video in which SmartScan is touted in a teleshopping format, replete with price reductions and charming hosts. Social media marketing would not reach the target group, the students explain, so they made the video.

The response from the audience is immediate: “Is that available to buy yet?” asks an elderly woman.

Professor Wiethoff hopes this actually happens for some of the prototypes. For many projects, industrialization is not as technically daunting as one might suppose, he observes. On the contrary, it is well within reach. “These are very practical prototypes, near complete” he points out. Naturally, the next steps would require investments and strategies, but there are good resources and contact points at LMU for these matters. “We very much encourage the students to take this step,” says Wiethoff.

His colleague Bakhtiari would be delighted. Digital aids are at the mercy of market forces to a certain extent, she explains, and the products available thus far would not really be suitable for the target group. The students, by contrast, spoke to the people on site for hours. And with success, it would seem. The presentations made an impression, and the senior citizen advisory council for the Munich municipality has requested to see all the ideas. So that soon even more people can experience what is possible with AI in old age.