SteffiCare

Millions of older people spend most of the day alone, and the phones and tablets meant to keep them connected were designed for somebody else. SteffiCare makes a small round screen that sits in the room and holds a conversation: it remembers habits and interests, asks follow-up questions, carries reminders, and answers a video call with one press. Care staff set reminders, events and meal plans from a dashboard, and families follow along in their own app.

Most of the technology of the last twenty years assumed a user who can read a small screen, remember a password and enjoy learning an interface. Older people at home or in a care home were quietly left outside it, and what they lose is not convenience: it is the conversation that never happens, the reminder nobody gives, the afternoon with no one to talk to. Care staff would gladly supply the attention if the hours existed, and the hours do not.

SteffiCare's answer is deliberately physical: a round five inch screen that sits in the room, looks at whoever is speaking and talks back. It remembers what someone likes and returns to it later, picks up earlier conversations, and turns a video call into a single press rather than a menu. Staff manage reminders, events and meal plans centrally while residents ask for what they need themselves, families see activity in their own app, and the company states that conversations are not stored. It is being built as a research project rather than sold, with care facilities applying to join pilots, which is a patient way to develop hardware for a room where trust is the product.