When parents and grandparents start to age often one of the first things to go is their vision. Vision loss keeps many elderly people from being able to use the phone because of the small numbers and buttons that can be hard to locate and press.

A new device from The Vision Group addresses this problem by allowing users to dial phone numbers by pressing a button to the side of a photograph. The FotoDialer has six pages that each holds four photos. The numbers that correspond to the photos are stored in the devices memory and the FotoDialer connects to any home phone.

It’s a good idea to get the seniors in your life a phone that’s easy for them to use. Emporia’s Life Plus is the latest of elderly friendly phones that cater to those over 50 years old. It weighs 138 grams, with 250 hours of standby time, has a “super loud” handsfree speaker, oversized display and buttons, an integrated flash light, even a Hearing Aid compatible earpiece.

Another interesting feature is the single press ICE (’In Case of Emergency’) number dial/emergency SMS. For those, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up moments. They just need to work on meeting a senior’s budget, because at £144.67, it’s a bit expensive.

Honda is known for it’s cars and motorcycles, but the company’s sights reach into other areas as well. Now that they have their robot, Asimo walking on his own, Honda is using robotics technology for some other things. Like an experimental walking assist device for disabled or elderly individuals.

Honda will be showcasing the device at the International Trade Fair on Barrier Free Equipments & Rehabilitation for the Elderly & the Disabled. The device is available in three sizes and uses brushless DC motors powered by lithium ion batteries that will provide up to two hours of walking assistance per charge. The assimilation of our elderly will soon be underway. Soon after they will be flying around in giant Borg cubes and harassing the Enterprise.

The idea behind this tablet/pda device is not to lure the elderly into gaming with a cute device full of pretty icons.(though I’m sure that would work) It’s to track every movement the elderly make. Not because we fear them…they’re old. It’s because Nokia believes this is the best way to keep them around longer.

By monitoring what they consume via RFID tags; from expired foods, medicine, possible allergens and nutritional info. It could probably even tell you if they have been putting toys in their mouths while watching Matlock, like babies do. It’s easy to read and use and that’s the key. This pad hopes to be a vital tool for the upcoming explosion of elderly Baby Boomers.(Which is bound to be a mess. Baby Boomers explode with twice the power of your typical spontaneous combustion.)