Take a look inside Pitt Healthy Home Lab’s tech-filled demo house in Oakland

An ageist stereotype calls technology a sort of kryptonite for the 50-and-over crowd. The Pitt Healthy Home Laboratory, however, has a vision of a future where technology helps older adults navigate their twilight years with agency, with a few high-tech safety nets for the hiccups that can come along the way.

The Pitt Healthy Home Laboratory in the heart of Oakland is no stark, clinical space. Instead, the 105-year-old demonstration dwelling fits in with the other houses near the University of Pittsburgh’s campus. No one lives there; the major difference is that inside the four walls, the laboratory is constantly testing technology ranging from a SafeStep meant to support stair climbing to a device designed to alert its users’ emergency contact in the event of a fall.

Technology team member Zach Roy. (Photo by Atiya Irvin-Mitchell)

The goal of the Pitt Healthy Home Laboratory team, according to Jack Fried, one of the team’s dozen technologists, is to create tech that meets the needs of older individuals in a world where most homes aren’t designed to accommodate them and or keep them safe. In the case of the laboratory, that means combining the lab’s inventions with home modifications such as rails on beds and giving users the ability to turn off lights through an app.

Such applications and modifications might not be needed by an able-bodied younger person, but since mobility can become an issue as a person gets on in years, they can make navigating the home safer and easier for an older person.

“Really small details can go a massive way,” Fried told Technical.ly. “Eliminating the need to have to walk or light switches or anything like that makes a massive difference for someone with arthritis when they’re actually living in their house.”

Technology team member Jack Fried, standing. (Photo by Atiya Irvin-Mitchell)

Other modifications being tested within the laboratory include smart knobs that open doors at the push of a button, a sensor that can connect to Amazon’s Alexa enabling it to make requests, and plugs on the top of tables to accommodate limited mobility. Currently, Area Agency on Aging in Allegheny County Deputy Director Shannah Tharp-Gilliam explained, none of the technologies being developed by the Pitt Healthy Home Laboratory would be covered by Medicare or Medicaid, but the team is still seeking funding options to make the technology as accessible as possible for the people who need it.

“We think having a pilot [can help us] demonstrate who this impacts and what the return on the investment is, how much money does it save the MCOs [managed care organizations], and how much money it will cost will help us to get additional partners,” Tharp-Gilliam said.

The team developing this tech is also aiming to balance the possible needs for assistance users can have with their desire for privacy and need for security.

Pitt Healthy Home Laboratory tablet. (Photo by Atiya Irvin-Mitchell)

“We’ve tested probably every different smart lock option available at this point,” Fried said. “Smart locks and smart doorbells are fantastic ways to not just implement security into the home, but implement security that is still controlled by the user without having to get up and go to the door or anything like that, but they still have the control to let whoever they want in.”

As the Pitt Healthy Home Laboratory Moves forward its goal is to try and get as much feedback from those most likely to be users as possible. In the meantime, Tharp-Gilliam said, what matters most is enabling people to age with dignity.

“That’s why I say aging in the place means aging in the place of your choice,” Tharp-Gilliam said. “Where you want to age when you’re aging is where you should be able to age.”