Even though technology seems to be the province of the young, there are a lot of older people using mobile phones as well. Not all of them want to be stuck using some old 2004-era flip phone.
That’s where Fujitsu’s new RakuRaku phone comes in. It’s a Android-bases smartphone designed to be easy for older people to use.
Touchscreens are great when your fingers are young and nimble, but as people get older it can be hard to make the fine movements that are needed to use touchscreens easily. The RakuRaku only highlights buttons on the screen while you touch them, instead of activating them. They only activate when you give them a firm press. The screen is even smart enough to ignore “accidental” touches.
A video shows how the whole thing works:
The zoom function also uses buttons instead of the standard pinching, which older users often find difficult. The screen is also designed to be easier to read, with large fonts. The phone also has voice recognition for sending long messages.
It’s currently only available in Japan, but with the aging population in the U.S. and other countries as Baby Boomers hit retirement age, the ideas represented in the phone will no doubt cross the Pacific at some point.
If you like this, then you’ll want to check out our post on a keyboard that clips onto your iPhone, as well as an attachment that will turn it into a Holga camera.
