We invite readers to scour the product list of the two-person, previously unheard of, French telecare company Birdy Technology for whatever value Swedish telecom Doro saw in it that we can’t see: http://www.birdy-technology.com/ [noisy flash website alert] When you navigate to the ‘Produits’ section you find two variations of the ‘Birdy Box’ telecare hub; a mobile alarm (that looks remarkably like one of those Chinese offerings) and a Pivotel medication dispenser.
We note that Doro’s press release states that “The effect of the acquisition on Doro’s financial position and earnings in 2011 is expected to be marginal” and can only conclude that, unless Doro thought they were acquiring something else, the price reflects the value they put on the involvement of Birdy’s owner, Xavier Corbin, for three years.
Dear telecare aware, the Birdy Box is an extremely capable telecare and telehealth platform for the future requirements of the UK. Using GPRS/GSM as the communication medium is allows rapid deployment (for example on leaving hospital) and also circumnavigates the triple-play problems of having your PSTN line unbundled and put in the less-than tender care of the ISP providers who apparently do not like social alarms on their systems.
Also Birdy Box is manufactured in Europe with fully qualified production lines and expertise in Class 1 receivers for social alarms.
The Doro acquisition will be a good force to enable the Birdy Box to become well established in the UK and European markets.
For more details of the Birdy Box and local contact, please see:
http://www.nextgenerationtelecare.com
@Tim. Thanks for the elucidation on the box – a wireless hub is a step in the right direction for speed of setup, etc.
This is a very interesting development and flies in the face of the information that others have gleaned about usability and functionality of devices etc. It would be interesting to actually have a ‘Birdy Box’ to play with as it looks like it would not last a long time in the field. But as a rider, I am really pleased Doro are considering this market important as they currently produce some of the best senior phones on the market.
I was fortunate to have a Birdy Box to play with and to perform some usability testing on at CUHTec (University of York) a while back. In the same way, our project partners, T-Cubed, were able to confirm the functionality of the device and its peripherals prior to inclusion in the Telecare EPG database.
We can confirm that the device does what it says on the tin both as a practical dispersed alarm and as a wireless hub for a number of sensors. When additional software is written for the monitoring centre, it will offer a novel means of rapidly providing telecare to the increasing number of people without a landline both in sheltered schemes and in dispersed housing. I could imagine it being used as part of a temporary reablement package. Also, with some attention to portability, it would also be suitable for people who have a hearing impairment which requires their telecare base unit to be moved from room to room.