Innovation is at the very heart of AgeTech and a prime driver of its remarkable growth. No one understands that better than Infineon, an AgeTech Collaborative™ (ATC) from AARP enterprise participant and world leader in semiconductor solutions that make life easier, safer and greener. With its smart Internet of Things devices, Edge AI and systems solutions, Infineon links the real world and digital world, playing a key role in unleashing the full potential of digitalization and helping create a better tomorrow.
Recently, Infineon produced a short documentary about innovation in AgeTech, hosted by Adrian Mikolajczak, vice president of Infineon’s Silicon Valley Innovation Center. Mikolajczak goes behind the scenes with some movers and shakers in the field — including the AgeTech Collaborative itself! — to explore how innovation is keeping AgeTech startups at the leading edge of their fields.
Innovation Through Collaboration
Taking Mikolajczak on a stroll through the AgeTech in Action exhibit — an extensive display inside AARP’s Washington, D.C. headquarters showcasing innovations from a number of ATC startup participants — Amelia Hay, ATC’s vice president of startup programming and investments, outlined why AARP started the AgeTech Collaborative in the first place: “Aging is really difficult. We want to make aging easier, and technology can get us there.”
The AgeTech in Action exhibit includes a representative sampling of startups that are all about making aging easier, including Joe & Bella, makers of stylish and dignified adaptive apparel; Virtuleap, which uses virtual reality to help promote healthy cognitive activity; Wellvi, makers of breakthrough vital signs monitoring devices; and Casana, which offers a smart toilet seat that provides users with vital health insights.
Pointing out that the AgeTech Collaborative now has nearly 200 startups in its ecosystem, Hay noted, “Almost 80% of older Americans are using technology in some form,” speaking to how well technology is benefitting older adults — but also to the massive opportunity for growth that companies in the AgeTech space can harness as they continue to innovate.
And it turns out that older adults themselves are often eager to help drive that innovation. This is precisely what’s happening at Asbury Methodist Village, a community in Gaithersburg, Maryland, that offers residents a variety of senior housing options, including independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing. Seeking to be a leader in technology and innovation, Asbury collaborated with ATC to create the Asbury Smart Living Showcase — a model living unit decked out with a variety of products from ATC startup participants. Asbury residents can get hands-on time with each device, then give candid feedback to the startups, including ways the user experience could be improved.
“Anyone that tours through the Showcase can fill out a postcard to provide feedback on the equipment,” says Michelle Potter, executive director of Asbury Methodist Village. “Our residents love to provide feedback, and they believe that they're really assisting all these startup companies.”
And provide feedback they do — and sometimes unvarnished feedback, at that. Describing some of the solutions in the Showcase, one resident offered this piece of constructive criticism: “I think these are good starts [but] I don’t think they’re really where they could be. There’s more artificial intelligence available than they’re using.” Besides proving that older adults are often more tech-savvy than most people think, this kind of feedback is gold for startups eager to innovate and evolve to meet the needs and expectations of their users.
Redefining What’s Possible
Diving deeper into the nuts and bolts of how innovation is driving real-world solutions in AgeTech, Mikolajczak visited Duncan Orrell-Jones, the CEO and co-founder of Camino Mobility, another AgeTech Collaborative startup participant.
“We've reimagined the old school walker or rollator as a power-assist device with embedded AI for health monitoring,” says Orrell-Jones. “We set out to design something that looks familiar and that hides all the technology.” The result is an advanced walker that automatically boosts power and applies brakes when needed, yet remains easy to use — encouraging older adults to stay mobile, longer.
Besides making walking easier for people with mobility challenges, Camino Mobility’s smart walker analyzes a user’s gait to detect — and help head off — other potential problems. “A 4% increase in strike time variability doubles your risk of a fall,” says Orrell-Jones. “So for us to be able to raise a red flag and say, ‘We’re seeing an increase in variability,’ that’s something that someone can go and take action on.”
All this is powered by Infineon’s Edge AI solution — which runs AI processes directly on local devices, instead of remotely on the cloud — embedded in Camino Mobility’s smart walker itself. “We've worked very hard to get an AI model to work on the edge,” says Orrell-Jones. “We’re not running the model on the cloud; the core AI model is being run on the device using a small battery and a relatively small computer. That progression in AI is making a big difference.”
Staying on the Cutting Edge
To get an engineer’s perspective on these technological breakthroughs, Mikolajczak spoke with Aiden Smyth, senior staff machine learning engineer at Infineon, about the state of Edge AI and what it holds for the future. “We’re moving away from the previous generation of task-based neural networks toward AI that’s going to run on-device with no need for internet connectivity or high compute power,” says Smyth. Edge AI models might not have the breadth of knowledge of cloud-based AI computing — they can’t tell you how much the Earth weighs, for example, or who won Super Bowl XIV — but they can nevertheless bring potent, design-specific capabilities where it matters most. Smyth notes: “An Edge AI agent can know, for example, what good physio movements are, what a good squat technique looks like or what a healthy stride or gait looks like” — capabilities similar to those built into the Camino Mobility rollator.
Advancements such as these are driving innovation and propelling AgeTech to new heights — and the future looks bright. “It’s very exciting right now, the next generation of machine learning,” says Smyth.
Be sure to check out the full video to learn more about how innovation and breakthrough tech is helping to chart the future of AgeTech, and visit Infineon’s website to learn more about the company and its purpose-driven offerings.
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