We aim to build an interactive calendar for elder people to schedule their activities and events easily with a selected group of people (families, friends, or social worker etc). These people can send voice messages to the elderly through an app and it will light up a corresponding magnet with the person’s image on the grandma’s (Lucy) wall (blinking lights mean action needs to be taken. Slow blinking: outgoing message and waiting for response from recipient. Fast blinking: action/confirmation pending from Lucy for incoming messages)

This is what the system looks like in resting state. The pictures of people are physical magnets which can be moved around and put on the calendar to indicate when an activity is scheduled with them.

Situation 1: The son sends Lucy a message through his app (e.g.  “Mom, I’m visiting on Tuesday”) and his magnet lights up. The light will turn off only after Lucy presses the magnet(and hears his recording) and then moves it to Tuesday. If she wants to reject this visit, she can double click the magnet and the light will go off, and the son will get a message on the app informing him of the rejection.

Situation 2: Lucy initiates interaction (“come visit me”) by moving the son’s magnet to Sunday. The light on the magnet will blink slowly till the son confirms (because he will get a notification on his app prompting him to act).

If he accepts the invitation, the light on Lucy’s wall turns off.

If he rejects it, the lights blink faster because Lucy is required to now move this magnet to its resting position or to another day.