It’s not easy being 2)gray. For the first time ever, getting out of a car is 3)no picnic. My back is 4)hunched, and I’m holding on to 5)handrails as I 6)lurch upstairs. I’m 45, but I feel decades older because I’m wearing an Age Gain Now Empathy System, developed by researchers at the 7)Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).“Agnes,” they call it.
At first glance, it may look like a mere 8)souped-up 9)jump suit. A helmet, attached by cords to a 10)pelvic harness, 11)cramps my neck and 12)spine. Yellow-13)paned 14)goggles 15)muddy my vision. Plastic bands, running from the harness to each arm, clip my 16)wingspan. Compression knee- bands discourage bending. Plastic shoes, with uneven 17)Styrofoam pads for soles, throw off my center of gravity. Layers of surgical gloves make me 18)all thumbs. The age-empathy suit comes from the MIT AgeLab, where researchers designed Agnes to help product designers and marketers better understand older adults and create innovative products for them.
“Aging is a 19)multidisciplinary phenomenon, and it requires new tools to look at,” says Joseph Coughlin, director of AgeLab. “Agnes is one of those tools.”
AgeLab, like a handful of other research centers at universities and companies around the country, develops technologies to help older adults maintain their health, independence and quality of life. Companies come here to understand their target audience or to have their products, policies and services studied. Often, visitors learn hard truths at AgeLab: many older adults don’t like products, like big-button phones, that 20)telegraph agedness. “The reality is such that you can’t build an old man’s product, because a young man won’t buy it and an old man won’t buy it.” Professor Coughlin says.“With any luck, if I am successful, retailers won’t know they are putting things on the shelves for older adults.”
The number of people 65 and older is expected to more than double worldwide, from 523 million in 2010 to about 1.5 billion by 2050, according to estimates from the United Nations. Many economists view such an exploding population of seventyand eighty-somethings not as an asset, but as a 21)looming budget crisis. After all, by one estimate, treating 22)dementia worldwide already costs more than $600 billion annually. “No other force is likely to shape the future of national economic health, public finances and policy making,” analysts at 23)Standard & Poor’s wrote in a recent report, “as the 24)irreversible rate at which the world’s population is aging.”
But 25)longevity-focused researchers, including Professor Coughlin, are 26)betting that baby boomers, unlike generations past, will not go gentle into the good night of long-term care. Devices for I’ve-fallenand-I-can’t-get-up 27)catastrophes, they say, represent the old business of old age. The new business of old age involves technologies and services that promote wellness, mobility, autonomy and social connectivity.
That’s the 28)upbeat message that Eric Dishman, the global director of health innovation at Intel, has been trying to get across to policy makers and industry executives for more than a decade. In his office in Beaverton, Ore., he demonstrates some prototypes, like a social networking system for senior housing centers, that older Americans are already testing. Often, he says, 29)field studies of his gadgets result in“success catastrophes”―the devices prove so popular that testers and their families are 30)loath to return them. “There is an enormous market opportunity to deliver technology and services that allow for wellness and prevention and lifestyle enhancement,”he says. “Whichever countries or companies are at the 31)forefront of that are going to own the 32)category.”
The Mirabella, a new $130 million 33)high-rise in the South Waterfront section of Portland, Ore., may be the greenest luxury retirement community in the nation. The building has solar-heated hot water, a garage where 34)valets stack cars in racks atop one another and sensors that turn off the lights when stairways are empty. However, the Mirabella also aspires to be the grayest―by providing an opportunity to develop and test the latest home-health technology and design concepts for older adults.
As part of that project, the company spent nearly a half-million dollars to install 35)fiber optics cables so that Mirabella residents could be encouraged to volunteer for a “living laboratory” program in which wireless motion sensors, installed in their apartments, track their mobility and health status in real time. About 30 older adults in the greater Portland area have volunteered to participate in the program.
Dorothy Rutherford, 86, a 36)petite 37)redhead with a 38)deadpan wit, is one of them. And she is a model for the kind of independent aging, 39)abetted by technology that the researchers hope to encourage. She gives me a tour of the equipment that researchers have installed in her apartment. Sensors that monitor the speed and frequency of her activity 40)dot the ceilings and cling to furniture, appliances and doors.
“I have no worries about privacy 41)whatsoever,” she declares, waving at the ceiling. “They are just sensors, not video cameras.” A wireless smart pillbox reminds her to take her daily vitamins. A computer on which she
阿格尼斯与老龄实验室
身为老人并不轻松。我有史以来第一次觉得从汽车里出来不是件容易的事情。我弯腰驼背，扶着扶手蹒跚上楼。我45岁，但是因为身穿由麻省理工学院的研究人员研发的年岁增长即时同感系统――一件名为“阿格尼斯”的外套，我觉得自己比实际年龄老了几十岁。
乍看起来，这套装置好似一件经改装而变得极其引人注目的连身衣。一顶通过绳索连到裤腰部安全带的头盔，限制了我的脖子和脊柱的活动限度。黄色镜片的护目镜模糊了我的视线。从两个衣袖分别连到裤腰部安全带的塑料绳索，限制了我双臂的活动限度。膝盖部的压缩带 束缚了双膝的弯曲。垫有不均匀发泡胶鞋垫的塑料鞋，使我失去了重心。多层的外科手术手套让我的手指变得笨拙。这件老龄同感外套来自麻省理工学院的老龄实验室，研究人员设计这件外套旨在帮助产品设计师和营销人员更好地理解老年人，从而为他们创造出适用的创新产品。
“老龄化是一个涉及多个领域的现象，它需要有新的工具来应对，”老龄实验室主管约瑟夫?考夫林说，“阿格尼斯就是其中一种工具。”
如同遍及美国的其他一些大学和公司的研究中心一样，老龄实验室旨在开发新的技术帮助老年人保持健康、独立和生活质量。各大公司来到老龄实验室则是为了更好地了解老年人这个目标消费群体, 或是为了检验其公司的产品、政策和服务。通常，在老龄实验室，参观者会了解到一些残酷的现实：许多老年人不喜欢昭示老年人身份的产品，例如大按键的手机。“现实就是你不可以制造昭示老年人身份的产品，因为这样的产品，年轻人不会买，老年人也不会买，”考夫林教授说，“假如技术研发有幸成功的话，零售商们将不会觉察到他们摆上货架的正是针对老年人的产品。”
根据联合国的估算，2010年全世界65岁以上的人口数量是5.23亿，到2050年这个数字将翻一番以上，达到15亿。许多经济学家都认为七八十岁的老龄人口数量的爆炸性增长不是一种财富，而是 一种迫在眉睫的预算危机。毕竟，据估计，每年全球治疗老年痴呆症的费用已经超出六千亿美元。标准普尔的分析师们在最近的一份报告中写道：“世界人口老龄化不可逆转地迅速增加必将直接影响到国家经济态势、公共财政和决策的未来走向。”
但是包括考夫林教授在内，专注于长寿研究的专家们坚信，美国婴儿潮时期的一代人不会像过去几代人那样甘于住在养老院里接受长期看护。这些专家认为，那些用于应对老年人摔倒后站不起来等突发状况的设备只不过是老龄化的旧商机。老龄化的新商机蕴藏在促进老年人健康、灵活、自主和社会联系的各种技术和服务之中。
过去十多年来，英特尔公司医疗保健创新全球总监埃里克?迪什曼一直致力于向决策者和工业界人士传达这一积极信息。在其位于俄勒冈州比弗顿的办公室，他展示了一些新技术产品的雏形，例如正在美国老年人之中试用的老年公寓社交网络系统。他说，这些产品在实地测试中通常都会获得“巨大的成功”――其受欢迎程度，从测试参与者及其家人都不愿意归还这些产品就可见一斑。“那些能够促进健康、提高防护、改善生活质量的技术和服务（在老年人中）有着巨大市场，能够把握先机的国家或公司，必将占领这个市场。”他说。
位于俄勒冈州波特兰市南海滨区、耗资一亿三千万美元的新建高层住宅区米拉贝拉，可能是全美最环保的豪华退休公寓。这栋公寓有太阳能热水系统提供热水，有管理员把汽车停放到车库的多层支架上，还有在没人时会关掉楼梯灯的感应器。然而，米拉贝拉的目标则是通过实地验证最新开发和测试的老年人家庭保健技术和设计理念，成为最体贴老年人的退休公寓。
在米拉贝拉公寓项目中，开发商用了近50万美元安装光纤电缆，以鼓励公寓里的居民自愿参与一项名为“生活实验室”的计划，该计划通过安装在居民家中的无线运动感应器，实时跟踪记录他们的居家活动情况以及健康状况。大波特兰地区已经约有30名老年人自愿参与了这一项目。
现年86岁的多萝西?卢瑟福是其中一位参与者，她身材娇小，一头红发，沉着机智。她是研究人员希望通过技术协助老年人独立安享晚年的典范。她领着我参观了研究人员安装在她家中的监控设备。监测她活动速度和频率的感应器分别安装在天花板、家具、电器和房门上。
她边朝天花板挥手边说：“我不担心隐私问题，这些设备只是感应器，不是摄像机。”一个无线智能药瓶提醒她每天服用维生素片。一台她 用来玩特定文字和数字游戏的计算机跟踪记录着她每天的游戏分数。迄今为止，她最喜欢的设备是Vgo通讯公司提供的一款配备了视频画面、昵称为西莉亚的人形机器人。卢瑟福太太的孙女和曾孙女住在怀俄明州，她们可以远程遥控西莉亚，随时随地与她进行视频聊天。“第一眼看到西莉亚这个人形机器人时，我就想其实有各种办法能够帮助老年人在家养老，”她说，“如果能找到一个方法让老年人在家养老，那么谁会愿意入住养老院呢？”
对诸如卢瑟福太太等老年人进行持续监控，可能有助于探索出以预防为主的老龄医疗保健模式――现行的模式是医生极少上门为老年人做检查，通常只是在老年人患急病或者出现意外时才对其进行治疗。这套持续监控系统有助于确定日常习惯（比如走路速度、姿势、睡眠、服药、电脑游戏得分等）的改变是否能够准确地预测诸如感知迟钝或行动失衡等问题，以便医生可以提前干预，从而避免老年人跌倒，发生如髋骨骨折等意外。
唯一的障碍是：帮助老年人独立生活的技术在市场上还处于起步阶段。阿格尼斯校准模拟了一位74岁老人的灵巧度、灵活性、力量和平衡能力。试穿了几个小时之后，我深切体会到老年人的身体限制。随着婴儿潮一代开始步入65岁，考夫林教授等专家们希望借助技术让老年人重获活力。如果人们能把试穿阿格尼斯外套看成一件有趣的事，那么他们的工作将会容易得多。