She lives 300 miles away from her family

She has mild/moderate dementia

She can’t make a call on a phone or use a remote control (except to get basic channels on her TV)

She finds it difficult to acquire new knowledge (especially involving technical or precise procedures) and ...

She lives on her own

Alexa is a life saver!

My mother is over 100 years old

This is an Echo Show 8", available for between £65 and £100 from Amazon. A 5" model costs between £40 and £65 ...

.. and it is entirely controllable from 300 miles away, or the other side of the world, come to that, via the internet and home WiFi. There is nothing on the device that is not remotely controllable.

With this device at my mother’s house for the last 9 months ...

• We can drop in on her at any time:    this is a free two-way video and audio connection    THIS WITHOUT ANY HANDSHAKE FROM HER — NO NEED TO PRESS ANY BUTTON OR SAY ANYTHING TO ACCEPT THE CALL

and   —>

• She can be reminded by the device about what’s happening today, who’s coming today, that it’s time to do this or that,  WITHOUT ANY REQUEST FROM HER. 

Or   —>

...

and   —>

• She can call any of her friends simply by saying, for example, “Alexa, call Mary”. The call will appear on Mary’s phone, but it is routed via Amazon at my mother's end, appearing to her like a speaker phone (or a video phone, as appropriate).    THESE CALLS ARE FREE TO BOTH LANDLINE & MOBILE.

• Or, she can ask “Alexa, what’s on today?”, “Alexa, what should I do about my toenails?” Alexa will respond to these and over 150 other questions that we know she might ask and that we have primed Alexa to respond to with current information. We keep these continually updated. Alexa records what my mother speaks and we can see and hear these interactions & amend Alexa’s responses to fit her requests. For example, today she is bothered by a dressing on a leg wound, so we’ll add responses to “Alexa, what should I do about the plaster on my leg?” (and similar questions).  

All of this is achieved by means of Alexa Routines, which require no coding input — they can be set up by any sensible adult (and probably most 14-year olds!) As a result of all of this, my mother now regards Alexa almost as a companion, and as a first port of call for most of the queries that come into her head. But where Routines are not enough, there is also an even more powerful advanced level … Alexa Skills ...

Alexa Skills

Alexa, tell Charlie to sing

So, if my mother says “Alexa, ask Charlie to sing” then Alexa will respond with her grandson singing one of her favourite songs, or she can say “Alexa, ask Elodie and Theo to do their puppet show” and Alexa will respond by showing a video of a puppet show that her seven-year old great-granddaughter performed 300 miles away last week.

Alexa Skills do require coding to set up, but with a Skill you can create your own actions that lie way beyond the wide repertoire of actions that are available to Routines.

Alexa, ask Elodie and Theo

Summary

The Echo Show has no features that cannot be remotely controlled, except for a physical slider camera shutter. 

All of this is set up and maintained REMOTELY, with no physical access to the actual device at my mother’s house. My mother never touches the device, and there is no TV-style remote-control thingy.

And all of this is FREE, NO SUBSCRIPTONS NEEDED.

Take-away message

The take-away message is that it’s not just private space travel that Jeff Bezos spends his billions on — Amazon’s investment in all the artifical intelligence that supports the  Alexa/Echo project is massive and continuous.

My advice is not to let the train leave the station without you — get on board!

some comments by John Macdonald

for the elderly

BEGIN

Amazon Echo Show

The device is aimed primary at tech-aware young adults, and they can certainly make it sing and dance -- play songs from Spotify, read aloud books from Audible, answer trivial questions, turn lights on and off, even show movies from Netflix, and lots more. But there are also huge possibilities in improving the lives of elderly people and those with reduced cognitive function who would find it impossible to initiate the functions just listed. And Amazon is largely unaware of this, judging by the absence of relevant stuff on the internet.