Virtual technology lets families communicate across the miles

CHICAGO -- Harvey Bumpus doesn't like to eat alone.

But his wife died more than a year ago, family members are scattered from Little Rock, Ark., to Las Vegas and those who are closer have their own lives -- meaning most nights he heats up a simple meal of 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 family.

But when it's over -- when the planes, trains and automobiles that brought families together take them away -- he and millions of others like him will be alone again.

Now, a Chicago 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.

"We are trying to really bring back the kind of family interactions we used to take for granted," said Dadong Wan, a senior researcher at Accenture.

The concept is simple. An elderly woman in, say, California, makes herself dinner. When she gets ready to sit down and eat, her son in Chicago is alerted via an electronic signal and goes to his kitchen, where a small camera captures what he's doing and a screen allows him to see his mother, who has a similar setup.

Together, they can share a meal.

Experts say such interactions could address a growing problem: Often, elderly people who eat alone don't eat enough or eat the wrong kinds of food. This can weaken them and 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 she plans a study of its effects with Wan.

Wan and Glaser said when a prototype becomes available, possibly in about two years, it will likely cost $500 to $1,000 per household. The system could incorporate home computers, television sets and broadband already in many homes, so customers could have the system installed much the same way they do cable television, Glaser said.

Such a system must be easy to operate to attract people like Bumpus, who don't own a computer and may be intimidated by technology, he said.

In Accenture's lab, projectors are mounted on the ceilings of two "kitchens" -- Wan is in one and senior manager Peter Glaser is down the hall in the other. In each, activities taking place in the other room are projected onto a large window, allowing the men to watch each other; microphones allow them to carry on a conversation.

Wan said in homes, cameras could be placed on top of a counter or television set or imbedded into so-called "smart picture frames" that capture what is going on in one kitchen and display it in the other.

It might sound like video conferencing, but Wan says the Virtual Dinner goes much further. When, for example, an elderly person like Bumpus puts the meal on his table, the system's software automatically finds family members who are similarly wired and determines who might be available.

"The application senses you are about to have dinner; it knows who is part of your network and then finds who is the right person to talk to you," said Wan.

That could be done in any number of ways, including determining whether someone in the elderly person's network is watching television, then sending a message that would be displayed on the TV screen.

"It might tell you 'Mom is on channel 456,"' said Glaser, then the person would click on that channel.

Such a window into the lives of elderly loved ones is an exciting prospect for Dr. Cai Glushak, a Chicago physician who is the caregiver for his parents in New York.

"I feel very limited by only being able to talk on the phone most of the time," said Glushak, one of an estimated 34 million Americans caring for a person 50 years or older.

"To get a look at them would give you a whole new understanding of what is going on," he said, noting it would be helpful to know everything from how thin they look to whether they're combing their hair or wearing clean clothes.