REAL LIFE NEWS: THE SMART WALKING STICK
by Hazed
A walking stick that has a built in sat-nav, as well as monitors for heart rate and temperature, has been developed to aid old people.
Japanese tech company Fujitsu has come up with the smart walking stick, which comes equipped with an LED display on top of the handle. It also has connection technology such as GPS, 3G and wifi. It can be used to give directions: if you need to turn, it vibrates and shows an arrow.
It can be set up to allow its location to be followed online, and to send email alerts if it thinks the owner has fallen.
Japan’s aging population means that technology to help care for the elderly is popular. This walking stick sounds like a good way to help an old person keep at least some of their independence.
The smart stick was on show at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, but there’s no planned release date yet.
