Tech for Older Adults Takes Spotlight at CES

Among the notable health care innnovations , Rohrbaugh noted, are digital therapeutics, devices that help health care workers monitor patients remotely, sleep technology and gadgets such as smart pens that can monitor insulin levels. Manufacturers will also be promoting advances in pain management, cardiac monitoring, telehealth and other topics. 

For example, WHILL is unveiling its Autonomous Drive System, a wheelchair that comes to you at the touch of a button — no walking required — and drives itself, relying on front and back cameras. The company is hoping to sell the wheelchairs to malls, theme parks and major airports like New York's LaGuardia and London's Heathrow.  

On Thursday, AARP will hold its first “pitch competition,” to highlight new technologies that can reduce social isolation by helping older adults build personal connections. CEO Jo Ann Jenkins will be joined by FUBU founder and entrepreneur Daymond John, a judge on ABC’s Shark Tank, at the presentation.

“Helping to drive the development of innovative new products and services that focus on the interests and needs of people age 50-plus is an important element of AARP’s mission,” said Jenkins. “The CTA Foundation Pitch Competition will help deliver new solutions to a large and, so far, underserved market and spotlight a key opportunity that other businesses are missing out on.”

Begun in New York in 1967, CES at first featured about 250 exhibits and drew 17,500 attendees, but the show has grown exponentially as technology inexorably seeps into everyday life. Through the years some innovations had flashy debuts but flopped — just as some products on display this week likely will.

Still, some splashy newcomers at CES became consumer must-haves, from the videocassette recorder (1970) to high-definition television (1998) to tablets, netbooks and android devices (2010).

This week, at least, expect the axiom about Vegas — “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” — to be turned on its head, if inventors, innovators and investors have their way. They’re gambling on introducing the next big thing in tech and are planning to tell the world all about it.