WO2011133628A1

WO2011133628A1 - Remotely managed assistive device

Info

Publication number: WO2011133628A1
Application number: PCT/US2011/033180
Authority: WO
Inventors: Raymond Koverzin
Original assignee: Raymond Koverzin
Priority date: 2010-04-21
Filing date: 2011-04-20
Publication date: 2011-10-27

Abstract

The senior is given an assistive device that is managed remotely by the caregiver. It is as small as practically possible and is worn on the wrist or as a pendant, clipped on a belt or fastened elsewhere on the body. It carries out several functions that help the senior, including automatic reminders and compliance checking. It uses digitized speech to provide information to the user. Through a wireless connection, the assistive device is programmed and monitored remotely by the caregiver via the caregiver web portal. The caregiver specifies all reminders to be programmed into the assistive device and can view current and historical senior acknowledgements, senior notifications including medicine compliance, and device operational state. The caregiver can remotely program the device to have senior notifications forwarded to any caregiver messaging address such as an email address, cell phone number as a text message or even as an instant message.

Description

REMOTELY MANAGED ASSISTIVE DEVICE

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

None.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention is in the field of wireless communicating devices.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Many seniors have difficulty following a prescribed medication regimen. The National Consumer Pharmacists Association reports that poor medication adherence has been estimated to cost approximately $177 billion annually in total direct and indirect health care costs. It has been reported that 49 percent said they had forgotten to take a prescribed medicine, 31 percent had not filled a prescription they were given, 29 percent had stopped taking a medicine before the supply ran out, and 24 percent had taken less than the recommended dosage. These and other factors, like accidental double dosing, puts seniors at greater health risk. It adds additional stress to seniors due to unplanned trips to emergency, more hospital stays, and more trips to the doctors office. Additional effort and stress is placed on family caregivers in having to deal with these undesired events while taking care of other needs of the senior and their own needs.

Additionally, seniors put themselves into greater physical health risk by forgetting to attend scheduled doctor's appointments, by forgetting to attend scheduled lab work such as blood work, radiology, and physical therapy. This may lead to failure to get proper, timely treatment based on updated information.

Why are seniors having these problems? Memory is not as good as it once was. In addition, they may be in denial. They may deliberately forget to take their medication and no one may be present to encourage them. They may not keep an appointment book or task list up to date or may not use one at all. In addition, in general, they do not like using complicated technology. Remember the flashing "12:00" on those VHS Recorders so many years ago? They are less likely to use multi-function cell phones or smart phones.

What is needed is an effective solution for medicine and task reminders and medical compliance checking. Medical compliance checking means that not only has the senior been notified to take their pills, the senior has confirmed that they took their pills. Current solutions for medication and task reminders are numerous but each suffer some limitation that is not acceptable to the senior or the caregiver. Only a small number are capable of compliance checking. The following describes the list of possible alternative solutions:

a) The simplest solution is for the senior to use an appointment book to record the time of each task required to be done e.g., take pills at breakfast, take pills at dinnertime, and so on. The senior can place a mark besides the appointment book entry indicating they have completed the task such as take pills and thus indicate compliance. It is a challenge to keep recording these important, routine tasks in an appointment book and to be disciplined enough, or even to remember, to look at the book every day.

b) The senior can use a watch with alarm settings. It is a small device that needs to be programmed with multiple dates/times. The senior will likely be challenged by small buttons/screen, and difficult/complicated to program, to set/update reminders. The caregiver could perform reminder setup task whenever they are at senior's home and remembers to do it. Another challenge with the device is that it will alert when a date/time alarm becomes current but may not clearly indicate the purpose of the alarm, such as take pills, see doctor, get groceries, etcetera. There is no compliance reporting possible. c) The third most likely solution is to have the caregiver call the senior to remind them to take medication or perform a planned task. This places a big burden on the caregiver to manage the senior's responsibilities on top of likely other senior home care tasks such as laundry, house cleaning, and bill paying the senior may need help with. The caregiver may, too, forget about calling the senior when needed or is unable to call due to workplace demands. The burden of tracking compliance is placed on the caregiver using whatever means the caregiver has on hand. On behalf of the senior, the caregiver can subscribe to a reminder telephone service as a way to alleviate the burden of having the caregiver call the senior with reminders. A service representative is tasked to call senior based on the senior-provided reminder schedule. Senior may be reluctant to call the service to set/update desired reminders but the caregiver could do that task on behalf of the senior. Service is likely to be expensive due to cost of a service representative to call the senior with reminders although an automated (computer voice) calling is possible as a likely cheaper though impersonal solution. The solution is not ideal because senior needs to be at home to receive reminder phone calls or carry a cell phone as an additional expense. It is possible for compliance checking.

A senior can use a home computer but it may be a large expense just to use for medication reminders. Seniors may be uncomfortable with using computers. A computer is not portable so the senior will not have any reminders while away from home or even in the home since the senior needs to be in front of the computer to see the reminder. It is possible to use for compliance checking.

A senior can use a cell phone for reminders. However, the senior may not be comfortable with navigating the cell phone's menu system and programming in the reminder. A cell phone might be a bit too big and heavy for a senior willing to cany. They aren't designed to be worn on the body like a watch or pendant. It is possible to use for compliance checking.

Seniors could use a pager and receive pager messages from the caregiver. The caregiver must remember to send pages at correct times. Pager displays may be hard for seniors to read and may still find pagers hard to use. It is possible to use it for compliance checking.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The senior is given an assistive device that is managed remotely by the caregiver. The assistive device is a small device worn on the senior and is easy to use. The assistive device is as small as practically possible that can be worn on the wrist or as a pendant, clipped on a belt or fastened elsewhere on the body. The assistive device carries out several functions that help the senior including automatic reminders and compliance checking. The device uses digitized speech to provide information to the user.

The assistive device is programmed and monitored remotely by the caregiver via the caregiver web portal that is part of the device manager, a remote server, that connects wirelessly to the device. The caregiver, using a web browser connecting to the device manager, specifies all reminders to be programmed into the assistive device and can view current and historical senior acknowledgements, senior notifications including medicine compliance, and assistive device operational state. The caregiver can remotely program the device to have senior notifications forwarded to any caregiver messaging address such as an email address, cell phone number as a text message or even as an instant message. The caregiver has another capability that allows them to prepare and have the device manager send a query message to the assistive device that requires the senior to select one of a set of provided answers, for example, Yes or No in response.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

Fig. 1 is a general, network view of the senior with the assistive device, wireless data network, device manager, and the caregiver with a web browser terminal Fig. 2 is the exploded view of the assistive device

Fig. 3 is the exploded view of the device manager

Fig. 4 describes the steps to remote programming an assistive device reminder Fig. 5 is the state machine of processing a reminder that becomes current on an assistive device

Fig. 6 is the state machine of processing a message received from an assistive device by the device manager' s application server Fig. 7 describes the steps to permitting a caregiver to send a query message to an assistive device.

Fig. 8 describes the steps to permitting a senior to send a query message from the assistive device to the caregiver.

Fig. 9 describes the primary attributes of a reminder.

Fig. 10 describes the primary handling options for a reminder.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Fig. 1 shows the network view of the invention. The invention is to provide the senior with a very simple, easy to use wireless assistive device 101 that is completely managed remotely by the caregiver 106. The assistive device 101 is a small device worn on the senior (user) and is remotely programmed and monitored by the device manager 104.

The assistive device 101 is a small, battery-powered wireless device that is usually carried on the senior 100 at all times either by wearing it around the neck using a lanyard, clipped onto a belt around the waist, as a watch-like device on the wrist or by any other means the senior 100 feels appropriate for them.

The wireless data network 103 provides a means for data messages to be routed between assistive devices 101 and device manager 104.

The assistive device 101 is programmed and monitored remotely by the caregiver 106 via the caregiver web portal 300 that is part of the device manager 104, a remote computer server or collection of servers, that connects wirelessly to the assistive device 101. The caregiver 106, using a web browser 105, can connect to the caregiver web portal 300, can specify all reminders to be programmed into the assistive device 101 and can view current and historical senior 100

acknowledgements, senior 100 notifications including medicine compliance, and assistive device 101 operational state.

Fig. 2 shows an exploded view of the assistive device 101. The assistive device 101 will be capable of running for a long time between battery charges to minimize the burden of senior 100 to keep the device sufficiently charged for use. A simple user interface comprising: a) The assistive device 101 has one or more buttons 209 that, when pressed, signals the Microprocessor of it's state change that causes program code stored in firmware 205 or flash/data store 203 to be executed to process the meaning of the state change.

b) The clock/timer 206 is a hardware component that keeps track of the current date/time. It allows program code to periodically check what the current date/time is for the purposes of processing a timed reminder. Alternatively, the clock/timer 206 component may be capable of signaling the

microprocessor 202 when the next relevant date/time is reached allowing program code to execute to handle that particular reminder.

c) Firmware 205 contains all the program code that can be executed by the

microprocessor 202 in order to deliver the features provided by the assistive device 101.

d) The assistive device 101 may have one or more LEDs 208 (light emitting diodes) that are used for a variety of indicators for the senior 100, such as indicating that the assistive device 101 is powered on and available, low battery indicator, or indicating which button 209 is enabled or any other desired visible indication. These LEDs 208 are under program control.

e) The memory 204 holds both program code and program data that the

microprocessor 202 accesses during normal device operations.

f) The microprocessor 202 is responsible for executing program code in the firmware 205 or program code loaded into memory 204.

g) The speaker 207 is the prime method of delivering information to the senior.

Information includes: reminders, notifications, queries, alerts, etcetera. The microprocessor 202 delivers any audio (via a digital to analog converter and any necessary analog signal amplification) to the speaker 207. This audio can be of any type; such as tones, beeps, music, recorded speech segments, synthesized speech.

h) The wireless data radio interface 201 provides the means of sending and

receiving data messages wirelessly 102 with the device manager 104 via the wireless data network 103. The wireless data network 103 could be a low data rate wireless network such as a pager network, cellular SMS network, or any other low data rate network.

The flash/data store 203 is a persistent store allowing any data written to it to be retained even if all power is lost to the device. Flash memory is a common persistent store for microprocessor storage but any appropriate persistent store technology can be used.

The primary data contained on the flash/data store 203 component is the reminder schedule table 210 used to know when to notify the senior 100. This table contains the list of date/time reminders that have been programmed by the device manager 104 and as requested by the caregiver 106.

Additionally, application data 212 contains data needed to securely identify the assistive device 101, the senior 100 who uses the device, and assorted program data used for normal operation and other unspecified applications running on this device.

Recorded audio 211 contains tagged recorded audio segments which can be played to the senior 100 via the speaker 207. These recorded audio segments can be speech, music, beeps, miscellaneous sounds, or tones. Program code being executed by the microprocessor 202 can select, based on their tags, a sequence of one or more audio segments to be played. Each segment and/or the whole selection can be replayed one more times as desired.

Additionally, the assistive device 101 could support a means to accept downloading and storing small application programs 213 (commonly referred to as applets) that provides a means to add new functionality at any time without requiring the senior having to bring it to the service provider to reprogram it.

Additionally, the assistive device 101 could support a means to accept downloading of digitized audio to be stored 211 and then played to the senior.

The assistive device 101 provides a "low battery" indication to the device manager 104 so that so that it can be reported to the caregiver. The assistive device 101 also provides periodic "Device Active" indications to the device manager 104 to be assured that the device is powered and appears to be working. Fig. 3 shows an exploded view of the device manager 104 that provides remote management and monitoring of the senior device.

The front end process of the device manager 104 is the caregiver web portal 300 where the caregiver 106 can log in and access their account information. In addition to providing access to their profile information, the caregiver web portal 300 provides a number of applications that handle the configuration, functioning, and reporting of a specific assistive device 101 provided to the caregiver's senior 100.

The applications database 304 holds the primary operational data required for the successful operation of the remotely managed assistive device service:

a) The assistive device Profile 305 contains information identifying the senior 100 and the assigned assistive device 101 as well as any additional information deemed necessaiy to operate over the assistive device network. b) The caregiver account profile 309 contains identity information (items such as name, street address, email address, home/cell phone numbers) and feature- related information such as where to forward received assistive device 101 notifications or when programmed reminders are about to be triggered.

c) The reminders table 306 contains all of the reminders programmed in the assistive device 101, including any reminder handling options the caregiver may specify 401 and as described in Fig. 10. In addition to the date/time for each reminder, all reminder responses and other associated information is recorded such as if and when the senior 100 acknowledged the reminder. d) The notification table 307 contains the list of predefined notifications received from the assistive device 101. An example of a notification is that the senior indicates they are at the doctor's office. Another is an automatic notification saying that the battery level is low in the assistive device 101. These notification may or may not be forwarded to the caregiver 106 as desired by the caregiver 106. These notifications may be viewed at any time through the caregiver web portal 300.

e) The queries table 310 contains the list of query messages sent to the assistive device 101 and the associated responses and related information such as date and time. Query responses may be forwarded to the caregiver 106 as desired or be viewed through the caregiver web portal 300. f) The application database 304 can be expanded to contain other application data 308 as needed to support future applications that enhance the usability for the caregiver 106 and the senior 100. The application server 301 is the back end active network process that: a) manages all data messaging with the assistive device 101 ; b) processes any immediate actions requested by the caregiver 106 as relayed by the caregiver web portal 300; c) processes any notification or response messages received from the assistive device including saving the information in the appropriate database table and forwarding information to the caregiver 106 as per the forwarding instructions recorded in their caregiver account profile 309; and d) the application server 301 may receive tasks from triggers issued by the application database 304.

The main function of the wireless network message agent 302 is to provide a means of sending and receiving data messages from any assistive device 101 registered on the network to the application server 301. The wireless data network 103 used can be any public or private network, including a low data rate wireless network such as a pager network, a cellular SMS network, or any other type of low data rate network.

The caregiver web portal 300 allows the caregiver 106 to log in and manage their assistive device 101 and caregiver account profile 309. The device manager 104 can be accessed by the caregiver 106 via a simple web browser 105 over a public data network 303 using a PC, smartphone, etc.

The caregiver 106 specifies one or more reminders on behalf of the senior 100. These reminders are stored in the application database 304 shared by the device manager's 104 front end caregiver web portal 300 and back end application server 301 processes. A backend process will send an appropriately coded data message with the reminder to the specific assistive device 101.

Through the caregiver web portal 300, the caregiver 106 can program one or more features on the assistive device 101 used by the senior 100. Based on the capability of the version of the device (configuration of buttons, displays, and other integrated components), the set of features programmable includes but not limited to; a) Set/Update scheduled pill reminders; b) set/update scheduled doctor's appointments; c) set/update schedule for any other important task on behalf of the senior; d) receive completion notifications from senior 100 indicating task

completion, e.g. pills taken; e) receive request notification from senior 100, such as notifying caregiver 106 that senior wants caregiver 106 to call them; f) reminders to caregiver 106 to remind senior 100 to refill prescriptions before running out; g) provide capability to send the senior 100 a query message requiring a simple reply such as either a yes or a no; or provides any other type of notification that may be of interest to either senior or caregiver or both.

The assistive device 101 provides a "low battery" indication to the caregiver 106 so that the caregiver 106 can choose to call and remind the senior 100 to recharge device in case they don't realize it themselves or provides periodic "device active" indications to the caregiver to be assured that the device is powered and appears to be operating properly.

In addition to remotely programming the assistive device 101, the caregiver 106 can select any specific or group of notifications received or not received as expected from the assistive device 101 and have that information delivered to the caregiver 106 in any manner desired: email, text message, or other means.

The caregiver 106 can configure their account to forward to the senior 100 messages and notifications, or some related manifestation of that information, to any destination like their cell phone, email, or even receive an automated phone call. The caregiver 106 can assign additional people to receive any indication as a care giving backup to them.

Additional applications can be supported that manipulate or respond to data gathered from the assistive device 101 and/or any other data source and generate other application data 308 for additional service usage.

The device manager 104 is connected via the public data network 303, likely the Internet, to receive caregiver web browser 105 session connections and to send out notifications as programmed by the caregiver 106. Fig. 4 shows the steps taken to program a reminder to be downloaded to the assistive device 101 by the caregiver 106 using a web browser 105. The caregiver 106 will select the date, time, and type of reminder 400 (e.g., take pills, doctor's appointment). Further details are provided in Fig. 9.

The caregiver 106 can select additional reminder handling options 401 such as but not limited to: maximum time period that the senior can delay a reminder, whether or not the senior can cancel a reminder, whether or not to have the senior responses be sent back to the application server 301, return the time when senior played the reminder message, and return the time when they pressed the button in response to the message. See Fig. 10 for further details.

Once all of the desired selections have been made, the caregiver 106 will commit the reminder 402 to the application database 304 reminder table 306. The application server 301 will be signaled whereby the reminder information will be retrieved from the reminder table 306 and transmitted to the assistive device 403, 101 via the wireless network message agent 302 and the wireless data network 103.

The microprocessor 202 on the assistive device 101 will receive the reminder as a message from the wireless data network 103 and then commit the reminder information 404 to the reminder schedule table 210. The microprocessor will then ensure the clock/timer 206 trigger time is set to the next scheduled reminder to await becoming current or active. Fig. 5 shows the state machine of how the senior 100 will handle a reminder that becomes active or current. The microprocessor 202 executes firmware 205 that waits for the next reminder activation 500 to occur. The reminder is activated 501 once the reminder date and time matches the current date and time indicated by the clock/timer 206. The microprocessor 202 will then execute the firmware 205 to notify the user 502 by one of a number of ways. The most direct way is to play the reminder messages over the speaker 207, using the appropriate recorded audio 211 segments, to the senior 100. Before speaking the message, the microprocessor 202 will look at the reminder handling options as set in 401 , and listed in Fig. 10, associated with the reminder and act on them. The microprocessor could, for example, first play a short beep/tone to alert the senior 100 of the reminder and wait until the senior 100 presses a button 209 indicating they now are ready to hear the message. After the message has been played, the senior 100 may have the option to press a button 209 to acknowledge the reminder 503. Tn doing so, a completion reminder can be scheduled 508 in case the senior 100 failed to acknowledge when they have completed the associated task by a calculated time frame. Normally, the senior should immediately perform the task 510 (e.g., take pills) and then press a button 209 to notify completion 511 of the task; which will cause the microprocessor 202 to record the reminder as completed and send a message to the application server 301 indicating so, as well as automatically cancel the scheduled completion reminder since it is no longer required.

If the senior 100 has completed the task 510 but has not notified completion

511, then the completion reminder will, at some point, become current and the senior

100 will be asked if the task is completed. The senior 100 can then press a button 209 to indicate completion and the notify completion 511 processing will occur.

Alternatively, when the senior is notified 502 of a current reminder, they can push a button 209 to delay the reminder 507. In doing so, a calculated time period is added to the current time and the reminder is rescheduled 509. Alternatively, the senior 101 can press a button 209 to cancel the reminder 505 indicating that the senior

101 is intending to ignore the reminder. This will cause the microprocessor 202 to record the reminder as canceled and notify the cancellation 512 to the application server 301 indicating so.

Finally, the senior 100 may not press any button 209, leaving the

microprocessor 202 to wait for an acknowledgement. The microprocessor will be eventually signaled that the activated reminder 501 is unacknowledged 506. Based on calculated handling options 401, the microprocessor 202 decides the rescheduling reminder 509 options, to reschedule or not, and/or notify the unacknowledged 513 reminder to the application server 301.

Fig. 6 shows the state machine of how the application server 301 will handle messages received 600 from the assistive device 101 via the wireless network message agent 302. Based on the type of message received, the contents and relevant associated information is saved by the application server 301 into the appropriate table in the application database 304. Reminder responses 601 are saved in the reminders table 306 associated with the particular reminder entry. Senior 101 query messages 602 are stored in the notifications table 307. Senior 101 query responses to caregiver queries 603 are stored in the queries table 310.

For reminder responses 601 , the application server 301 will analysis the response with the reminder handling options as calculated 401 resulting in one or more actions, such as reporting success/failure of reminder compliance 604 to the caregiver 106, and how frequently to report - every time, hourly, daily, weekly.

For senior 100 query messages 602, the application server 301 will forward the message by appropriate means that the caregiver 106 specified in their profile 309.

Finally, for senior 100 response messages to caregiver queries 603, the application server 301 will forward the message by appropriate means that the caregiver 106 specified in their profile 309.

Fig. 7 shows the state machine of how the caregiver 106 can send the senior 100 a query message asking the senior 100 to reply with one of the provided response messages. The caregiver create the query message to send 700 via the caregiver web portal 300. The caregiver 106 will specify zero or more response messages that the senior can select from when they receive the query message. The query message will be stored in the queries table 310 and the application server 301 will be signaled to send the message to the assistive device 101 via the wireless network message agent 302. Once the assistive device 101 receives the queiy message 701, it will announce the message 702 to the senior 100 who will then be responsible for selecting one of the provided response messages to send back to the caregiver 106. Each possible response message will be announced to the senior 100 with the identity of the key to press. For example, to respond with yes press the green key, to respond with no press the red key. The selected response message 703 is sent back 705 to the application server 301. if no response is selected before the calculated waiting period for a reply occurs 704, a message indicating so is sent back 705 to the application server 301 . When the application server 301 receives the response message, it is stored in the associated query entry 603 in the queries table 310 and the reply is forwarded 606 to the caregiver 106 by appropriate means that the caregiver 106 specified in their profile 309. Fig. 8 shows the state machine of how the senior 100 can send the caregiver 106 a query message asking the caregiver 106 to reply with one of the predefined response messages. The senior 100 will use the assistive device 101 to select a query message to send to the caregiver 106, 800. The application server 301 receives the query message, stores it in the queries table 310 and forwards the message to the caregiver' s 106, 801 forwarding addresses. The caregiver 106 can select one of the provided response messages to send back to the senior 100, 802. When the application server 301 receives the response message, it is stored in the associated query entry in the queries table 310 and the reply is forwarded 803 to the assistive device 101. The query reply is received by assistive device and announces the response to the Senior 100, 804.

The main physical embodiment of the assistive device 101 is one where there is a speaker 207 to play the audio announcements, four buttons 209, and the other elements as shown in Fig. 2. The play button will play the current announcement over the speaker 207 when pressed. The acknowledge button is used to positively acknowledge the current reminder or message. The delay button is used to delay the responding of the current reminder or message by some calculated time period. The "cancel" button is used to negatively acknowledge the current reminder or message. Each button 209 identified as play, acknowledge, delay, and cancel, can be lit by an LED 208 indicating when that button is active and available to press. For example, if the delay button is not lit, then the senior cannot press it to delay the reminder or message.

Other embodiments can include different sets of buttons 209 and arrangements on the assistive device 101; such as the exclusion of the delay button 209 or cancel button 209.

Another embodiment of the assistive device 101 is as the main embodiment plus a text display on the device for displaying reminders and other information.

Another embodiment of the assistive device 101 is one where it uses a very low power, short range data technology like bluetooth or zigbee to communicate wirelessly. This embodiment of the assistive device 101 will depend on a a small wireless data router device that relays the short range data from the assistive device 101 to the device manager 104 via a pager network, a cellular SMS network, or other types of public or private wireless networks.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. A remotely managed assistive device apparatus for a plurality of automatic reminders comprising:

a simple wireless assistive device,

a wireless data network, and

a device manager;

wherein said simple wireless assistive device comprising:

a microprocessor,

a wireless data radio interface providing a means to communicate with said device manager,

a plurality of buttons providing a means to input a plurality of responses, a speaker providing a means to deliver a plurality of announcements, and a clock/timer providing a means for said microprocessor to know when to perform a plurality of scheduled tasks;

wherein said wireless data network providing a means of transmitting data wirelessly between said device manager and a plurality of said simple wireless assistive devices;

wherein said device manager comprising:

an application server providing a means to automatically program and monitor a plurality of simple wireless assistive devices and store a plurality of response messages, calculate and forward requested said response messages,

an application database providing a means to store a plurality of data for later retrieval and update, and

a web portal providing a means to specify said automatic reminders and view current and historical said response messages;

whereby a caregiver can remotely specify, and program said plurality of automatic reminders and monitor said reponse messages from said simple wireless assistive device on behalf of a senior carrying said simple wireless assistive device; whereby said senior need only respond to each said automatic reminder and relieved of the burden to personally and directly program automatic reminders into said simple wireless assistive device.

2. The remotely managed assistive device apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said simple wireless assistive device comprising:

a small physical size allowing said senior to wear said simple wireless

assistive device at all times.

3. The remotely managed assistive device apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said simple wireless assistive device comprising:

a plurality of LEDs as visual indicators that guide the senior.

4. The remotely managed assistive device apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said web portal providing a means to specify a query message that is stored in said application database,

wherein said application server provides a means to transmit said query message to said simple wireless assistive device;

wherein said simple wireless assistive device upon receiving said query message provides a means to announce said query message and send back to said application service with said response message; and

wherein said application server provides a means to store said response message in said application database and forwards said response message to said caregiver.

5. The remotely manage assistive device apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said simple wireless assistive device provides a means to specify a query message that is sent to said application server;

wherein said application server provides a means to store said query message in said application database and forwards said query message to caregiver;

wherein said caregiver sends a query response message to said application server; and wherein said application server provides a means to store said query response

message in said application database and forwards said query response message to said simple wireless assistive device where said query response message is announced.

6. The remotely managed assistive device apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said caregiver web portal comprising: a means to specify a plurality of reminders for said simple wireless assistive device,

a means to specify a plurality of reminder handling options for said reminder, a means to specify a plurality of message notification forwarding options, a means to view a plurality of current and historical reminder notification response messages, and

a means to write said reminder specification information to said application database.

7. The remotely managed assistive device apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said application database comprising:

a plurality of caregiver account profiles,

a plurality of assistive device profiles,

a plurality of specified reminders,

a plurality of notification response messages, and

a plurality of query messages,

a plurality of query response messages.