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Topic: Dementia clock

Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 12-09-2019 03:10 PM

The stuff you never knew existed until you need one.

Inlife dementia clock

My mother loses track of what day of the week it is; she had an medical appointment last Tuesday and showed up a day early (which cost her an unnecessary taxi ride), and she has started phoning me once in a while to ask what day it is. I don't think she's losing her mental acuity but simply because one day is much the same as any other day she loses track.

I never knew there was such a thing as a dementia clock, but there are quite a few available. The one that I just got for her shows the day of the week, current time, "morning, afternoon, evening, night, before dawn" and the year, month and day. Everything spelled out in big letters and spelled out in full with no abbreviations.

And the box that it comes in just says "digital clock". I figured if it said "dementia clock" or anything like that I would have to do a bit of creative editing before I gave it to her.

This should be the real thing for her to keep track of what day it is. It keeps perfect time too. I got it last week and have been running it here for the past several days to insure that it works before passing it on to her.

If any of you have an elderly relative who loses track of the date and time, you might want to look at something like this. Again, I never knew these things existed until I needed to get one.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-09-2019 03:14 PM

My grandfather used to lose track of the time of day. My mom got him a large digital clock with 4-inch-tall numbers and put it right on top of the TV he watched, but he would forget to look at the clock and still lose track of the time. Once he went to a 9 AM church service at 9 PM and wondered why nobody else was there... the fact that it was dark out didn't mean anything to him.

As an old friend of mine used to say, "Getting old ain't for sissies."

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Carsten Kurz
Film God

Posts: 4340
From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009

posted 12-09-2019 04:07 PM

I found it bizarre, but, towards the end somehow comforting, to see my father-in-law evading most of my nerdish approaches to help him through his worsening dementia with tech gadgets. Whatever I came up with, he found a way to not use it, misuse it, forget it, damage it, whatever. At his age and within his very state of mind, I simply couldn't teach him new tricks, no matter how clever they occured to me. That dementia clock would be without batteries (or unplugged) the next day in order so save energy. I once used glue on a battery compartment to keep him from doing that. When he noticed there was no way to take out the batteries, he simply kept the gadget under a couch pillow so it wouldn't bother him any more. You learn so much from them...

- Carsten

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Harold Hallikainen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 906
From: Denver, CO, USA
Registered: Aug 2009

posted 12-09-2019 04:26 PM

My 95 year old father-in-law seems to do pretty well with an Amazon Echo. And then there's the Echo Silver https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvT_gqs5ETk .

Harold

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 12-09-2019 06:46 PM

quote: Frank Cox
This should be the real thing for her to keep track of what day it is. It keeps perfect time too. I got it last week and have been running it here for the past several days to insure that it works before passing it on to her.

Does the clock automatically synchronize to the WWVB radio time signal from Fort Collins, CO? The product page on Amazon didn't say anything about that. We have a couple of analog wall clocks at my work place that automatically synchronize to the radio signal. The process takes about a day and then the clock is pretty much dead-on accurate to the second. I could see maybe only a slight difference to the clock in my mobile phone, a fraction of a second at most.

It's too bad the manufacturer of that Dementia Clock couldn't do a better job designing the display. Arial Narrow is perhaps even more ugly than default Arial.

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 12-09-2019 06:55 PM

You expect those Chinese to have a feeling for Western typography?

Maybe if it was designed by the Chinese counterpart of Steve Jobs he/she might have cared. [Wink]

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 12-10-2019 11:22 AM

My mother has had two of those automatic synchronizing clocks before and neither of them worked. I guess they don't receive the radio signal and I really don't know why. She lives in a little house built in 1930-something in a small town and there's nothing unusual about where she lives that would block the signal but for whatever reason she's tried those clocks twice over the span of several years and they just didn't work at all.

This clock doesn't do that and that's the way I wanted it. It does have a rechargeable battery built-in (and apparently non-replaceable without dismantling the whole thing as I don't see any access hatch on it for the battery).

My mother doesn't do well with technology. A few years ago Costco had a sale on ebook readers. I thought one of those would be the real thing to get for my mother since the stuff that she reads (Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, etc) can be downloaded by the yard. So I bought the ebook reader and downloaded something like 1000 books of the sort that she likes.

I gave her the ebook reader and showed her how to use it (very simple device, single purpose and quite straight-forward) and she seemed to understand how to use it.

She doesn't use it at all. Ever. I've showed her how to use it a few times, she always understands and can do it when I'm sitting right beside her. But as soon as I'm not there it goes on a shelf and doesn't move from there.

Sigh... It seemed to be such a good idea too.

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 12-10-2019 12:32 PM

Same clock is listed in the Hammacher Schlemacher catalog (yah, that's what I call it) which they insist on sending to me even tho I've twice told them to take me off the mailing list which I never signed up for. So now I keep it in the bathroom for potty reading material so I can look thru it just for laughs because you can find almost everything listed in it for much less elsewhere.

Given my disdain for HS -- can't you tell? -- I must say their marketing team was smart in naming that very same made-in-China clock as the "Full Disclosure Clock," wisely dropping the word dementia, and then charging 90 bucks for the same thing. I guess they figure you'll pay the extra $10 bucks not to think you need something designed for people with dementia or alzheimer's. I would have called it instead, the Everyone's Forgetful Clock.

Amazon might get more mileage out of it if they too dropped that name. For someone who is just looking for a clock with good size, readable text that you need when you're squinting at it in bed in the middle of the night or just coming out of a drunken stupor (when you REALLY need a clock like this), if the name give the average shopper the impression that it's a medical type product designed specifically for people with dementia or alzheimer's, it might be quite off-putting. Would they call it "The Clock For Old People With Poor Vision"?

Plus, if you hunt around a bit, you can find this exact same clock for a lot less...a LOT less. Frank, Amazon has a really easy return policy. I'd send it back and get it for 38 bucks here: [URL]https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Calendar-Alarm-Clock/dp/B07WPY3345/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Digital+Calendar+Alarm+Day+Clock+-+with+8%E2%80%9D+Large+Screen+Display%2C+am+pm%2C+5+Alarm%2C+for+Extra+Large+Impaired+Vision+People%2C+The+Aged+Seniors%2C+Th e+Dementia%2C+for+Desk%2C+Wall+Mounted%2C+Black&qid=1576001966&sr=8-1]Same clock, cheaper price![/URL]

Also, this one which may not have all the bells and whistles, but if you just want the time and the day, check out this one: A cheapo version

No idea why that first URL didn't post correctly, but if you copy and past it, it will get you there.

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 12-10-2019 03:03 PM

Unfortunately that wouldn't be any cheaper than the one that I got because it's priced in US dollars and there would be a surcharge for shipping it to Canada. In most cases it's better for us Canadians to just buy from amazon.ca instead of amazon.com so we can pay in Canadian dollars and get the free shipping.

Some stuff that is on amazon.com isn't available on amazon.ca. In that case I can still get it but I end up having to pay shipping on top of the posted price.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 12-10-2019 03:33 PM

quote: Marcel Birgelen
You expect those Chinese to have a feeling for Western typography?

Chinese companies make and export plenty of other types of merchandise whose packaging and product design doesn't lazily lapse to one of the first Latin typefaces in the font menu.

By the way there is no shortage of American "graphic designers" who routinely use Arial on practically everything -squeezing and stretching it to fit, which add an extra level of stink on already garbage-quality design. God knows I see this all the time in the sign industry.

quote: Frank Cox
My mother has had two of those automatic synchronizing clocks before and neither of them worked. I guess they don't receive the radio signal and I really don't know why.

Dead batteries and lack of a radio signal are the two most common problems. I suppose build quality could be another issue as well. Not all clocks are manufactured at equal levels of decent quality.

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 12-10-2019 05:11 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
Chinese companies make and export plenty of other types of merchandise whose packaging and product design doesn't lazily lapse to one of the first Latin typefaces in the font menu.

Yes, some do, but there are plenty that don't really have a clue and often end up using the ugly, often monospaced latin characters embedded into their otherwise Chinese font. You can often spot this in stuff like manuals or public announcements. In some cases it even ends up on products of promotional packaging.

quote: Bobby Henderson
By the way there is no shortage of American "graphic designers" who routinely use Arial on practically everything -squeezing and stretching it to fit, which add an extra level of stink on already garbage-quality design. God knows I see this all the time in the sign industry.

Well, I'm already mostly happy if those so-called designers didn't end up using Comic Sans, which is somewhat of a plague. If I would run a major company, I would ban that font from any company PC...

I had a hard time taking IKEA seriously when they changed their default corporate font from some special version of Futura to plain-vanilla Verdana, an ugly-ass typeface developed in the late 1990s for Microsoft for maximum readability on low resolution screens (a typical early web-font). They're now in the process of changing it to Noto, which is a font designed by Google, which at the very least, looks more professional than Verdana, which I consider to be the "Comic Sans Professional".

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 12-11-2019 12:10 PM

quote: Marcel Birgelen
Yes, some do, but there are plenty that don't really have a clue and often end up using the ugly, often monospaced latin characters embedded into their otherwise Chinese font. You can often spot this in stuff like manuals or public announcements. In some cases it even ends up on products of promotional packaging.

Most people don't know how to use type on a professional graphic design level. The big gripe I have is when unqualified people are doing graphic design work, misusing type in pieces of design that will be visible to the public for many years, be it a retail company logo, a sign standing next to a road for 20 years, etc. I have an even bigger problem with designers who do know better, yet choose defaults like ugly Arial 'cuz they don't give a fuck. When enough bad looking signs overrun a community it will eventually lead to public backlash and really bad anti-signs ordinances. I try to warn the hacks in my industry they're pushing their luck. But nearly all have to learn the hard way about that issue.

I can give a slight pass on bad Asian type use partly because there aren't nearly as many CJK fonts available as regular fonts with Latin character sets. Professional quality CJK fonts can be pretty expensive. Nevertheless, someone working with professional design software (like Adobe CC apps) will have access to some good pro-quality CJK fonts which are often equipped with good character sets for Latin and maybe even Cyrillic or Greek. They just need to make enough effort to scroll past the usual defaults.

quote: Marcel Birgelen
Well, I'm already mostly happy if those so-called designers didn't end up using Comic Sans, which is somewhat of a plague. If I would run a major company, I would ban that font from any company PC...

I think Comic Sans is far more widely used by the general public than it is by actual graphic designers. In those rare instances I see Comic Sans used on something like an outdoor sign I usually assume the client dictated that type choice either directly or with his own home-brewed customer provided artwork. While there are some far better looking comic book hand-lettered typefaces out there (particularly from foundries like Blambot and Comicraft) there are many others far more ugly than Comic Sans. Unfortunately many of those even uglier ones are available for free. The best hand-lettered & script typefaces are typically commercial OpenType fonts; they typically have large character sets with lots of alternate glyphs so the lettering looks more like real lettering rather than something from a font file.

quote: Marcel Birgelen
I had a hard time taking IKEA seriously when they changed their default corporate font from some special version of Futura to plain-vanilla Verdana, an ugly-ass typeface developed in the late 1990s for Microsoft for maximum readability on low resolution screens (a typical early web-font). They're now in the process of changing it to Noto, which is a font designed by Google, which at the very least, looks more professional than Verdana, which I consider to be the "Comic Sans Professional".

Major companies will occasionally change the typefaces they use for corporate communications and brand support. This is often done when the brand itself is tweaked or completely re-vamped. Earlier this year IKEA did a somewhat subtle update of their logo. The switch to Noto Sans for communications might have happened around the same time. I don't hate Verdana nearly as much as Arial, but it still has a "default" smell to it. The real problem with Verdana is its limited number of weights and a limited features in its character sets. OTOH, Noto Sans has 4 different widths and 18 weights for each width, 72 font files total with at least 3246 glyphs in each font file. It can do a lot more than Verdana.

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 12-11-2019 01:57 PM

I really don't blame anyone for not using a professional design outfit to create a sign or whatever else, even if it is going to be sitting at the side of the road for the next twenty years.

If I design my own sign/ad/whatever then it costs less than hiring someone to do it for me and it's unquestionably mine.

In these Intellectual Property happy times, there's a greater than zero chance that if I had a sign designed and decided later to modify it in some way that the original designer would come back to me for either more money or somehow disallow my change, even though it's my sign and I paid for it.

If someone builds a fence for me and I decide later to paint it pink and move it across the street, the tradesman who built it for me has no come-back, but if I have something designed then it's somehow different, even though I paid for the services in both cases.

I had an argument about that with the person who took some photos for me twenty years ago. I haven't said a single word to that person since that day even though I still see him around town regularly and even walk past him on the sidewalk occasionally. To my surprise he sent me an email a few years ago asking if he was allowed to come to the show here again after all these years. I never replied.

I learned my lesson and I've never forgotten.

If I want to create an ad or a fridge magnet I design it myself. If I want a photo of something I take it myself. Construction work? I draw what I want and give it to the guys who are pouring the concrete and swinging the hammer.

It may not be "professional" but it's mine.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-11-2019 06:54 PM

quote: Frank Cox
If I design my own sign/ad/whatever then it costs less than hiring someone to do it for me and it's unquestionably mine.

I agree with this as long as it's practical. When I was in high school I used to put together ads for our store for the local paper (when everything was "paste-up") and the advertising rep there told me I had a "flair" for that kind of thing. Ever since then I've made my own signs for around the theatre or my store. I'm no "sign guy," but I think I'm pretty good at it.

It'd be fun to have Bobby or some other expert critique some of my stuff sometime. I know I've learned a lot just from Bobby's comments here on Film-Tech.

Any sign expert would probably find it hard to hold back a major puke if he drove through my town here. There are some truly horrendous signs, some that are still horrible-looking despite being made by "sign companies," but a few amateur hack jobs too. The top of the list is an insurance company that's across the street from here. They had a metal sign done by a local welding shop, and then they powder-coated the whole thing in DAY GLO GREEN PAINT. I kid you not. And of course now the thing is starting to fade from the sun, so now it looks like faded day-glo green.

I suppose you could find similar or worse examples about just about any community.

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