The wide availability of cheap and reliable sensors is going to have all kinds of effects on how we live our future lives. I'm actually a big fan of using sensors either carried on one's person or embedded in the environment to change and hopefully to enhance our connectedness to the world. I usually think of this in terms of providing a cybernetic assist to our fragile grasp on place -- using cheap computing power to remind us of where we are, where we're not, and how the two are connected.
This is something entirely different, but at least in the same realm. These clever researchers have found a way to put cheap sensors and computing into shoes to help with balance problems, particularly with the elderly. We're now seeing legions of baby boomers reach retirement age, but unlike some past generations, these people are not going to be content to toddle off to a condo in Boca. They're healthy, educated, and vibrant with life, but still afflicted with some of the physical and cognitive declines that come with advancing years. So the challenge is to find ways to help them adapt to the inevitable changes within, but to still live up to their full potential.
In my own small way, I'm beginning to engage with questions like this in my research life. How does (and how should?) design, especially architectural design, adapt to a cohort of seniors who aren't ready for the rocker on the porch so much as the trek in Nepal? I don't think we know nearly enough about how to do this well.
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