Our population is getting older but our technology is designed for the young – creating a very obvious problem. Some innovative technologists are, however, addressing this situation with smart homes designed for the elderly. Interaction designer, and former software engineer, Kevin Gaunt points out that our homes of the future are not all “picturesque Airbnb-style houses inhabited by attractive people who effortlessly interact with technology, dealing with all our chores and reading our deepest wishes before we are even aware of them”, as smart home marketing may sometimes suggest. In his graduate project at the Umeå Institute of Design’s Interaction Design in Sweden, Gaunt imagined a series of smart home bots aimed at helping the elderly. What might immediately appear to be both challenging, technologically, and full of potential pitfalls, socially, is actually designed with such problems in mind. Gaunt seems to suggest that technology does not need to be perfect, or that failures make […]