The municipality of Isojoki, located in the rural South Ostrobothnia region in Finland, will harness new mobile services to reduce the loneliness and social exclusion of its senior citizens. The planned service, created by the Finnish company Pieni Piiri (or ’Circly’ in English), enables the users to make secure video calls with their relatives and friends, get calendar reminders, receive messages and also watch other content such as national TV broadcasts. The aim of the pilot is to create more social connections by setting up a place the video call functionality can be used to meet new people – a sort of friend match-making for the seniors!
The Circly service runs on Apple iPads and Samsung Android tablets. It forces the devices to adopt a simplified, customisable user interface. This creates a very easy-to-use environment for the elderly, who do not necessarily have previous experiences with any modern mobile devices. It also gives the closest relatives a good way to check whether the grandma or grandpa is doing well.
More information: circly.com
