Usability – Scenario 2015

May 2015. A universal remote control device and an avatar help 78-year-old Olivia Berger manage her life.

The video call arrives just after breakfast. Olivia Berger pushes the receiver button on her remote control and sees the worried face of her son Bernd. "Hi, Mom," he says. "How are you doing?" "Fine," Olivia says, without pressing the control that transmits her own picture. After all, she has just emerged from the shower and is sitting with a mass of tangled gray hair in front of the big screen in her living room. "I went to the theater last night and saw a ballet of Goethe's Faust," Olivia says. "What's up?" "I'm giving you a call because I just had a bad feeling yesterday," Bernd answers evasively. "That's nice of you," she replies, "but everything was OK. I just had to lie down for a while." "Good," says Bernd, "then I don't have anything to worry about. You really sound fine. Say, do you have any plans for Saturday?" "No," Olivia says, her heart skipping a beat. "Do you want me to take care of the kids?" "That'd be great," Bernd says, his image flashing a big smile. "Then we could go to a garden party." "No problem," she assures, "just call before you bring the kids over." "OK, Mom, will do," Bernd closes. "Thanks a lot."

The goal of the system is to allow older people to continue to live in their own homes. Sensors record Olivia's movements, including her use of the home network and household appliances. Based on this data, the Home Care System formulates an activity pattern, renders it in the form of a colored ball and transmits an encoded version of it to her three sons, who have the same portraits.

If she was a little less active yesterday, the ball would appear faded. Her sons notice the change and then check to see how their mother is doing. Once a day, Olivia uses a small diagnostic device that measures her pulse, blood pressure and several blood values before transmitting the findings to a central medical office. If any abnormalities are reported, a doctor calls.

Yesterday, the sensors detected that Olivia hadn't moved around for several hours and was out in the evening. She had forgotten to tell the system that she planned to be out. "Frankie!" she calls to the screen, and the comic figure of her avatar appears. "Something up, Olivia?" asks Frankie, who is named after an actor from Olivia's youth. "Frankie, the next time I lie down or go out for the evening, be sure to turn off the Home Care System's data transmission for me. I always seem to forget to do it. And send e-mails to my sons Dominic and Thomas to let them know I'm fine." She has to use the name of her media system's avatar to begin each command so that he knows she is speaking to him. "Understood," Frankie says. "Please confirm with the remote control." The remote control is a small pocket computer with a display that Olivia uses to control practically everything in her home: alarm system, blinds, lights, heating, Arnie, the domestic robot and, of course, the media system that combines music, video, television, telephone and the Internet. In the past, each of these activities required its own remote control unit. Today, Olivia can even use the device to make phone calls with its language option and can attach it to her cane.

She looks quizzically at Pebbles and shakes her head, laughing: "You must be the first cat in the world who purrs around a robot, asking to be stroked." "Olivia," Frankie says, interrupting her musings. "You wanted me to track down the Columbo episode from 1968 about a psychiatrist. It's on Channel 461 today." "Frankie, please record it for me," Olivia says. "OK," Frankie replies. "Please confirm." Olivia confirms her request and then studies her food order. A large purchase of groceries, including frozen food, has already been delivered to her SkyBox, which can be filled from outside. Olivia can get bread and milk herself, but she wants to have candy and ice cream ready for her grandchildren. She dials into the system and orders chocolate and a liter of vanilla ice cream. Olivia is already looking forward to seeing the two children romp through her apartment and turn the folding ramp on the stairs into a slide again. "That will leave a huge color ball on the Home Care System," she says to herself – and smiles.

Norbert Aschenbrenner

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