Chicago – Harvey Bumpus doesn’t like to eat alone.
But his wife died more than a year ago, and his family is scattered across the country. Most nights, he heats up oatmeal or hot dogs and eats alone.
“I don’t have much choice,” said the 82-year-old retired correctional officer who looks forward to Christmas as one of the few days each year when he gathers with his family.
But when the planes, trains and automobiles that brought everyone together take his family away – he, like millions of other elderly people, will be alone again.
Now, technology consulting company Accenture is developing a system called “The Virtual Family Dinner” that would allow families to get together – virtually – as often as they’d like.
The concept is simple. A woman in, say, California, makes herself dinner. When she gets ready to sit down and eat, the system detects it and alerts her son in Chicago. The son then goes to his kitchen, where a small camera and microphone capture what he is doing.
Speakers and a screen – as big as a television or as small as a picture frame – allow him to hear and see his mother, who has a similar setup.
“We are trying to really bring back the kind of family interactions we used to take for granted,” said Dadong Wan, a senior researcher in Accenture Ltd.’s Chicago labs.
Experts say such interactions could address a growing problem: Elderly people who eat alone often don’t eat enough or eat the wrong kinds of food. It can trigger a host of physical and mental problems that eventually can become life-threatening.
“To physically eat with others, to be able to do that, there are not only social benefits but health benefits,” said Dr. Julie Locher, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Alabama- Birmingham, who specializes in eating issues among older people.
Locher, who suspects virtual meals could forestall hospitalization or placement in nursing homes, was so intrigued with Accenture’s project that she plans to study it.
When a prototype becomes available, possibly in about two years, it probably will cost $500 to $1,000 per household, Wan said.
Senior Accenture manager Peter Glaser said he hopes insurance companies and government agencies help pay for the system, much as they do for home health care workers, once they see its benefits.
But it must be easy to operate to attract people like Bumpus, who doesn’t own a computer and may be intimidated by technology, Glaser said.
