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Is Google Home Fit For Elderly and Disabled Users? (vortex.com)
Chances are either you or someone you know received a Google Home over the holidays. Not only are they being marketed heavily by Google but they seem to have appeared in almost every "Holiday Gift Guide" on the internet. Slashdot reader Lauren Weinstein brings up an interesting dilemma: is Google Home fit for the elderly? Weinstein writes: You cannot install or routinely maintain Google Home units without a smartphone and the Google Home smartphone app. There are no practical desktop based and/or remotely accessible means for someone to even do this for you. A smartphone on the same local Wi-Fi network as the device is always required for these purposes. This means that many elderly persons and individuals with physical or visual disabilities -- exactly the people whose lives could be greatly enhanced by Home's advanced voice query, response, and control capabilities -- are up the creek unless they have someone available in their physical presence to set up the device and make any ongoing configuration changes. Additionally, all of the "get more info" links related to Google Home responses are also restricted to the smartphone Home app.
I don't know. Can it pick stuff up around the house? Can it actually help a person with physical needs?
Quit buying crap that doesn't do stuff. "Tells you things" is not doing things.
I bought a Google Home Mini for my grandfather. Admittedly the smartphone requirement is a bit of a pain in the ass, but I installed an Android emulator on his PC and made sure that it always remains on. The last time the Home needed an update, I logged in to his computer remotely, fired up the emulator with the Home app installed and since the PC is on the same WiFi it worked flawlessly, saving a 90 mile round trip.
Until they make 911 calling available on it, it's greatest potential benefit will be missing.
That seems to confirm the original story: for a normal computer user, it would be impossible to maintain a Google Home remotely. Even you have to go through great pain and electricity expense to do so, and you are probably breaking some ToS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvT_gqs5ETk
Google Home is totally fit for the elderly.
On a related note, I have cancelled all my old email addresses and phones and gone to a different one, and removed all my elderly relatives from my contact lists.
You guys have fun doing the tech support calls. My mom couldn't even use a Mac without needing tech support ... most of which was "plug it in, does it say found device, click on Ok, you're done, stop phoning me at 3 am".
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Yes! A /. story I'm at the bleeding edge of.
My upper 80s grandmother lives in an assisted living facility. After trying a Google Home myself, I immediately bought one for her about a year ago. She absolutely loves the thing. She only uses it for the weather, to turn her TV on and off (I set up IFFTT), and occasionally stock prices and other facts, not anywhere near what it is able to do. Nevertheless, she loves how simple it is for her to have access to stuff she previously found confusing (TV remotes), precise weather info isn't easy to get if you don't have a smartphone, etc. I also don't get calls anymore about how to use the TV.
I haven't yet had a circumstance yet where I needed to make configuration changes that couldn't wait till the next time I visited and the one time it stopped working Grandma knew enough to unplug it, wait a bit, and hope it would work and it did. And there's lots of things I can set up remotely if I need to.
I previously tried giving her an Amazon Echo and while she occasionally used it, it was very frustrating to her because Alexa seems to require you to speak things in a certain way. However, the Google Assistant is much more flexible in the phrasing and order of words. She's had mini-strokes in the past and doesn't always use the exact words you'd expect for what she's trying to say but you do understand what she's getting at. Google seems to get her meaning better. (That's not to say it's perfect. There are times it doesn't understand her, but its success rate is way higher than Alexa). Additionally she's a very devout woman and the Google Home (which plays sound from YouTube) has a much better selection of religious stuff than Amazon's offerings, because YouTube has a large collection of such material.
If she weren't living in a single room in a assisted living facility (with staff to help her), I'd start installing smart devices like the Nest and anything else you could control with the Google Assistant in her home, because she really seems to get it in a way she doesn't with other things.
Also, on my end, Google (and Alexa) store audio recordings in the cloud of what was asked. I like being able to check her Google account to see if how she's doing (i.e. if she's following her usual patterns) without having to bother her. Yes, she knows that I can do that and approves.
I could go on and on about this but besides moving her into assisted living, the Google Home has really been the next best help for us. I always joke with her that if someone had told her, even five years ago, that she would be talking to an air freshener when she's in her upper 80s, she would think she got dementia in her old age. But instead she's the most with it person there! What a change in her lifetime! I want to get her into a self driving car next.
Agree -- No. I'm nearly 80 and find myself without a smart phone, tablet, facebook account and other necessities of modern life. I dislike small screens, lack of a real keyboard, and the fact that you can't even pick up many devices without inadvertantly changing their current settings. I pay Trakfone $7 a month to maintain service for a cell phone that I use maybe six times a year.
My car is 12 years old and thankfully missing most of the bizarre "features" of newer models. I've added an aftermarket GPS, rear view camera, and a radio with MP3 capability. I'll probably add an aftermarket collision avoidance system when the aftermarket devices get a bit better and cheaper. I find the UI on my wife's 2013 car to be Kafkaesk.
We have an Amazon Echo around the house somewhere. It works really well. I was impressed. But we never use it and it isn't currently plugged in.
Many of our kitchen appliances have digital interfaces. Most are usable. But the older mechanical equivalents worked just as well, sometimes better, and were repairable.
We have TV streaming -- Amazon, Hulu,, Netflix. Works pretty well. And it means we no longer have to deal with Comcast. But the User Interface is mediocre and the need to use multiple remotes (one for the TV a different one for the rokus) in annoying. Sometimes, I find myself opting for OTA TV just because it's easy to use -- turn it on and change the channel. My kid is a network engineering major and I let him run things. I COULD run them myself if I had to, but only because I've dealt with networking for decades. Most of my fellow octogenarians probably couldn't. Not because they are stupid. Because they don't care. My wife, who is in no way shape or form a stupid lady, is totally baffled by any computer problem.
User interfaces are hard to begin with and UIs designed by millenials to satisfy mangers who are only a bit older leave a lot to be desired for the elderly. What's this white on light-blue crap? The desirability of CONTRASTING colors in UIs was recognized about 12 hours after the first color displays were introduced. And while I'm ranting, a large percentage of North American users are familiar with the menu bar. Quit trying to replace it with things that are even worse. (Wrap it on small screens). And icons. They suck. Always have. Always will. Pick a widely used language -- English, Spanish, or Chinese -- and use it in your UI. Everywhere. And be consistent. Don't use four different words for quit/exit/finished/end
So yes, I have doubts about Google Home's appropriateness for many of the elderly.
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
methinks you misspelled 'inept'?
"OK Google, my house is on fire"
"Playing This house is on fire by AC/DC on Google Play music"
2nd and subsequent attempts:
"OK Google, my house is on fire"
"OK, I'll remember that"
Google home has little genuine usefulness in general beyond novelty, and it is not suitable for people if they do not already have a ability to already use technology and a comprehension of it's many current limitations in consumer grade products.
Way too much of "Sorry", and it's lack of understanding of even the simplest ability to have a conversation to learn the context of a command really makes it only a small step forwards from talking dolls for children. Even if someone does have a control device, the propensity of the system to answer on the wrong device (which lacks the functionality of the other) means if the control device is in ear-shot, it makes life even worse. Here are some examples:
"OK Google, help I've fallen over"
"Sorry, I don't understand"
"OK Google, call care line"
"Sorry I can't make calls yet"
"OK Google, call the ambulance"
"Sorry, I can't help with that yet"
"OK Google, switch on the kitchen lights"
"My apologies, I don't understand"
Like much consumer technology, I suspect most are are destined for land fill, perhaps having provided a few moments of novelty.
And who decided that a drawstring is the end of perfection and progress should not continue to other assistant devices such as voice control?
bickerdyke
So sorry you're a senior disabled person who lives alone with no friends and no neighbors and no one to help you.
Those of us like me -- healthy, young-ish, homeowners -- depend on at least a hundred people every year for the very basics of living.
I can't fix a serious plumbing issue, and you can't plunge a toilet remotely either, by the way.
I can't diagnose why my car keeps blowing a fuse, and since it's the anti-theft system fuse, you'd need to be a dealer to reprogram the keys anyway.
I might be able to clean my furnace and my fire place and my air conditioner twice a year, but I wouldn't be able to fix what might need fixing, nor be certain that I didn't break it trying to clean it.
I don't repair porcelain tiles.
I can paint, and I can even make small drywall repairs, but I can't do large drywall repairs.
Electrician, I am not, so anything beyond a simple outlet or basic switch, and I'm S.O.o.L..
I don't walk on rooves.
I don't pave driveways, although sealing is easy.
I cut grass, but not trees.
I cook, but don't repair kitchen appliances.
This concept of needing to be able to control every device with ease is a naive attitude of the I.T. industry. It's ridiculous. Do you hem your own pants? Most people buy pre-washed lettuce.
"Chances are either you or someone you know received a Google Home over the holidays."
Wrong on both counts.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
It's difficult to judge something which you have not tried yourself.
I am quadriplegic, meaning I'm in a powerchair and in addition my hands and arms are partially paralysed. I believe I'm a subset of the people mentioned in the title.
I can drive over to the switches/thermostats and reach them if I angle my chair so the better arm can reach over, one thermostat I have to reach with a stick (and if it's set wrong after I'm in bed I will suffer all night) but it's many times easier and faster to just yell at Google Home, from anywhere in my home, to flick lights or change temperature.
I always get a kick out of reading the comments when Slashdot posts something like this. The majority of the comments on stories like these can be summed up in two sentences..."I don't have a use for this type of item nor have I ever owned one or any of its competitors, so I have no actual experience or knowledge to base my comment on. But because I don't like them nobody else should use them either, and anyone who does is a fucking idiot".
But at the same time, these comments also show how far Slashdot has degenerated over the years. Now every fourth comment is something like "This device is spying on you!!!!!!!!!!!1111111oneoneoneone". Back in the day, the average Slashdot reader was smart enough to have already fired up packet sniffing software and checked it out for themselves.
Now, to get back on topic. My 80 year old mother does not use Google Home. But she does have a couple of Amazon Echo Dots that I bought and set up for her. Their primary use is for daily news, weather information, music, and clocks and timers. She thinks its wonderful. That's good enough for me.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.