I have an elderly lady living next door and she doesn't really seem to have anyone checking on her (I have never seen anyone coming to hers) apart from me and my partner every once in a while (usually she will pop by asking if we need anything and vice versa).

I'm a little bit paranoid about what would happen if she fell/collapsed in her apartment and couldn't call for help. It doesn't help that there is a dog living with her (I'm not gonna paint the picture, but I'm sure you heard the stories...).

I want to suggest to her to have some sort of SOS button that she could carry around the flat and, if something happens, she could press it to call for help.

I found this on aliexpress but it has it's own proprietary android app that I don't think would work on my GrapheneOS phone. Local, non-aliexpress options are pretty expensive and/or are subscription based.

Do you know of any alternative that wouldn't break a bank and would have more open source friendly system in place?

EDIT: I was thinking about a cheap wireless door bell (she would have the button - door bell would be in our flat). The problem is when we are away from home.

Perhaps a door bell with simple phone push notifications (my partner has a regular android phone so she could receive those)? Any product suggestions?

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[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 39 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It doesn't help that there is a dog living with her (I'm not gonna paint the picture, but I'm sure you heard the stories...).

FWIW I think you're thinking of cats. A loyal dog will often starve to death before harming their master.

All that being said, I think this is one of those hills where it's not worth dying on for FOSS. There are services out there that are designed to do this and have round-the-clock monitoring. Do you really want to trust that your jury-rig solution is fool proof enough to save her? As you said, if you are out of the house, it does no good. Just something like lifealert is probably better here.

[–] thelastknowngod@lemm.ee 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Agreed. I could run water sensors and solenoid valves for my basement water heater off of an arduino or rpi. I could also use a commercial product that has a warranty and a product engineering team and a QA department and etc etc...

I'm going commercial. The potential for damage to be done is too high for some hack job.

I've been in FOSS software for more than 20 years but honestly find the absolutism insufferable. It's not always practical and there are more important hills to die on.

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's worth consideration in cases where the industry has been monopolized by some kind of "smart tech" product. Like if for your example the only company selling water heaters was Meta, and you needed to sign your soul away and had no right to repair your water heater, then jury rigging as you describe might make sense. But as long as there is a product available which provides a minimally invasive option, it isn't worth trying to roll your own.

[–] Maeve@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

I wonder if Mozilla tested them. The report on cars was 🤦🏽‍♀️ and they don’t even tell you, unless I misunderstood. I thought it was some sort of implied consent to…sell your most intimate details, down to ssn, sexual preferences/proclivities and obviously if it listens for commands, it’s listening, searching dba for something similar to what it heard.

[–] plzExplainNdetail 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Dogs can and do eat people. https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/animals/would-your-dog-eat-you-if-you-died-get-the-facts

I do agree that OP should look into already existing services that are actively monitored.

[–] Maeve@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Well that devolved fast, hah. But i thought it too. You’re dead, they’re starving 🍽 . But depending on overall mobility, rom, vision, a fog/cat can trap you up. I was amazed the lady that broke her hip up the street didn’t get pneumonia, but…she got up and did her pt 2-3 times a day instead of laying up or unable to get up and getting pneumonia. I get it. I’m feeling my age and old/new injuries and aches and I feel like i don’t want to walk, too hut/cold/rainy/mosquitoes but I feel it if i miss a few days.