18-04-2025
‘Called it a godsend': Senior care device turns your TV into an AI powered caregiver
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Alleviating loneliness among the senior community — that's what ONSCREEN, a senior care device that turns your TV into an AI-powered caregiver, aims to do.
The company is partnering with the New York State Office for the Aging and the Association on Aging in New York to give out free devices to qualified applicants.
'We're a very rural area, we're upstate NY, a couple of miles from the Canadian border, the winter is very long, especially this one,' said Susan Schrader the program director at the Community Health Center of the North Country, 'we're finding seniors that are incredibly lonely, and have no way to get out of their house.'
Schrader's been working with seniors for 25 years and says ONSCREEN devices have been a huge help for giving the folks she helps stay connected with family —and keeping them healthy with medication reminders.
'We've had one person that kept forgetting his medications and after he had it a couple of weeks, he came back into the health center and actually called it a godsend,' she said
But the main attraction with the device is Joy — an AI companion for older adults. Schrader says that users already love her company. She says they installed a few devices in mid-March and already one user has accessed Joy 79 times.
ONSCREEN Founder and CEO Costin Tuculescu lives the user experience – his mother uses the device. 'Joy checks in with her every single day, talking about the garden. Joy knows about the garden way more than I do, and she even gives my mom advice.'
The company launched during COVID to help older adults stay connected. 'A lot of our customers were really family caregivers buying the product for their elderly parents in their late 70s early 80s,so that they can easily see each other,' said Tuculescu.
With the company's partnership with the NYSOFA and the Association on Aging in New York to give out free devices, Tuculescu hopes this leads to more pilots, and therefore more evidence that keeping people connected will keep them healthier.
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