A blue Ring notification would flash across my phone in the middle of class, and my stomach would drop. My grandfather's dementia led him to wander outside alone. I learned to recognize the click of the front door lock from my bedroom and race downstairs before he got too far.
Life Alert needed him to recognize an emergency. The GPS watch couldn't help inside the house. “Hey Alexa” was a phrase he could never remember. The burden-free solution I needed simply didn't exist — so over three years, I built it.
The first time I placed the device beside him, he looked at it and asked, “Did I go for my walk today?” It searched his activity log and answered, “Yes, you went for a walk this afternoon.” He went quiet, nodded, and settled back into his chair. Finally, something listened to his every word.
“Instead of asking people to adapt to technology, I could build technology that meets them where they are.”
