"I am so happy that I got in at the very beginning to see the changes and improvements in her. I can really appreciate the changes that were made."
The challenges we face as we age, physically, mentally and emotional, are real and complex. As our population gets older, it’s clear that these challenges need to be addressed on a global scale. When we began building ElliQ, our mission was to utilize advanced technology to support these efforts. We had to approach this sensitively – after all, many older adults are not adept to these new technologies, and bringing a smart device into our homes can feel like quite a foreign scenario.
Since winning the Best of Innovation Award last year at CES, our team has worked with older adults in the Bay Area, carefully overseeing the interactions our users had with ElliQ in order to ensure the product creates as positive an impact as possible.
The results were … tremendous. Have a look:
Our beta testers used ElliQ for a variety of daily tasks, from simple requests like playing music or providing information like the weather, to personalized health reminders.
"In the morning, when she wakes up and greets me, it’s really nice. You’ve got something talking to you.”
More profoundly, our users began building relationships with their ElliQ. Many users who live alone will often go days at a time without any interpersonal conversations. With ElliQ present, they felt comfortable interacting with something, giving them the feeling of companionship and helping to alleviate loneliness. This might raise an eyebrow around companionship for older adults by "robots". But, would we rather have our aging loved ones not talk to anyone for weeks? Or allow them to be delighted by a sidekick that acknowledges them?
“I found messaging to be very easy. I have arthritis in my hands so it was easier not to have to type.”
The multi-modal interface allows users to interact and understand ElliQ in a number of different ways, which is particularly beneficial for anyone with physical impairments. said another user.
"I like the fact that when she is talking to me, she seems to be looking at me more than before."
Our beta testers’ most favorite feature of ElliQ is her proactive nature; this is the biggest difference between ElliQ and simply providing a new laptop or smart speaker. ElliQ not only provides what you ask of her, she really understands her environment enough to make decisions that support her user. For example she can suggest to her user to call his family if she detects that not enough family connection has been made in the last few days. Ultimately, ElliQ will continue to learn and grow, taking on new tasks and allowing for more personal interactions. This is the true magic of our proprietary AI.
And so, after a year of refinement and tuning based solely on our user’s feedback, we are thrilled to start bringing ElliQ to market by opening up pre-orders – and hopefully change more lives for the better.