Life|Ware

This is an easy start.   The number 1 good idea for building out a Assistive Automation Solution is to buy into the Life|Ware automation suite from Exceptional Innovation.

Life|Ware Is a Microsoft Vista based, PC centric Home Automation and Assistive Automation software by Exceptional Innovation, www.exceptionalinnovation.com. Unlike iControl Life|ware is loosely coupled to existing Automation/Security/HVAC peripherals thus the LifeWare software can talk to many 3rd party products in the marketplace such as lighting control, cameras, thermostats and many other devices, both wired and wireless. This is very similar to the way third party peripherals such as pointing devices, printers, external hard drives, web cams, etc… attach to PC’s and/or Apple MAC’s. LifeWare has the added benefit of running within Windows Vista Media Center, which uses a familiar TV/Cable box paradigm and transforms a traditional PC into a digital television that can easily connect to TV’s, HDTV’s and LCD/Plasma screens and is operated using a familiar TV like remote control. Running Assistive Automation from an integrated PC/TV adds the additional functionality to control and manage analog and digital audio/media content, while also allowing you to control Assistive and Home Automation functions from a single source, your TV remote control. With this combination of PC/TV, instructive video content can be selectively targeted and loaded onto these home based systems much in the way that a caregiver, doctor or pharmacist provides hard copies of information or links to caregiver portals, medical and/or drug information on the Internet. Furthermore, using this familiar TV/Cable box paradigm you can also run PC based applications such as interactive chat (IM), video conferencing, VoIP communications, IPTV and video streaming/playback. These features can be used to assist elderly and disabled persons via real time, two way communications through TV mounted web cams, wireless security cameras, wireless pick up microphones, multi room/zone speakers, wireless blue tooth head sets and/or the TV’s built in speakers. Furthermore, any PC application can be integrated into Windows Vista Media Center to provide familiar PC based applications such as social networking portals to connect elderly people with support networks that are tailored to provide content, connections and communications specific to their needs (such as doctors, therapist, family and caregiver networks) – all through the PC connected to any TV in the home. From a people change management perspective, e.g. getting elderly and physically challenged people to align with the technology, using a familiar TV/Remote control paradigm increases the chances of adoption and usage and mitigates training and support issues. Another advantage to the PC centric approach is that there is built in Assistive features such as voice activated commands and zoom/pan for increasing the size of screen elements (like icons and text). Lastly, LifeWare is fully programmable using standard and widely understood and supported PC based programming languages (VB, C#, Other), in addition to their easy to use scripting tool, so the software can be easily customized by users/service providers to create lifestyle scenarios for lighting, climate control, alarming security or triggering events, such as panic alerts for assistance.