The Human Side of Senior Living Technology

You are listening to Boomers Today with your host Frank Samson. Well, welcome to Boomers Today. I’m your host, Frank Samson. Of course, each week we’re bringing important and very useful information on issues facing baby boomers, their parents, and other loved ones.

And as I do on every one of our shows, I thank all of you, and I thank all of you because our listeners are growing each and every day and it’s because of all of you sharing our podcast individual shows with friends and family, and so I want to thank you. So many of you listen on many of the podcast stations like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Audible, or you could just ask Alex or Siri to take you to Boomers Today, so some of you go right to our website at boomerstdayradio dot com. So thank you for all that. But I do know why you’re sharing shows with family and friends because we have the best guests.

We have great guests, a lot to learn, and I’m not going to disappoint you today because we have which with us Mitch Braff, who’s the founder of liquid View, which creates wellness focused digital windows for window list spaces. The product transforms windowless spaces like hotels, senior living centers, and office spaces into places of beauty and tranquility. So, Mitch, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you for having me.

Frank, that’s great. I mean, this is an amazing product and so lots to talk about. But I guess my first question for you is just, you know, maybe explaining a little more detail what liquid View is and what inspired you to create it. Sure well, liquid View allows anyone to place a window, what looks like a window, that feels like a window, that sounds like a window in practically any room, and so it really we’ve said, transforms the rooms.

So we’ve all been My first office had no windows. The first place in San Francisco, I was lucky enough to live in the master bedroom had a lightwell as a window in there. And so it’s really hard and on doing research, there are millions and millions of. People who do not have windows, especially in senior care, especially in you know, memory care people’s apartments, and it can be very depressing.

And so we found that we’ve made these incredible digital windows with twenty four hour views. So my background is in film, so we go to these beautiful locations around the world, we’re filming with these Imax cameras. We shoot for thirty hours. We have a twenty four hour cycle, and if you’re going to be in you know, if someone is in San Diego and they’re looking at it today, it’s they’re going to have the sunrise and sunset.

If they’re looking at Venice, Italy, it will match San Diego today. And if they’re in. Seattle, same time zone, different sunrise, different sunset. So our system, and we have patents on this, matches this circadian rhythms of where ever it’s installed, so it feels real.

In fact, it feels so real that Stanford University has been working with us for the past two and a half years and they’ve done they’ve studied this and they found that our windows are so realistic in their language. It tricks the brain and gives people similar health and wellness benefits as if they were by an actual window in a beautiful location. So it’s kind of cool how we’ve been, you know, kind of inavertently. I didn’t plan to make a wellness product that we have this non pharmacological intervention that has help that are helping people all over the world and huge impact.

Again with seniors, So. Help help us, you know, envision this. Most of the people will be listening to this, not watching us, all right, so try to So let’s let any location, uh so that window then adapt to the time. So in other words, if it’s getting dark outside, is it is it getting darker? I mean exactly, yeah, exactly.

So we have a you know, in terms of with in assist living in senior care where at Roote Golden Plaza in San Francisco, and they in their memory care and they have a community room where they have couches and they have other people can sit, and they have our windows and our windows. Then we’ll match. So it’s in San Francisco. And if and if sunset today I’m making this up, that is at eight thirty four pm and they’re looking at Venice.

Italy, or Hawaii or Miami. Wherever they choose, the sun set in liquid view will match the actual sunset outside. So it feels like a real window because the content will always match the current circadian rhythms of where it’s played. Does that make sense, Frank, Yeah.

I guess I’m trying to envision. Will the user whoever’s room’s in and whoever’s controlling it. Can they customize it for themselves and what they’re seeing or ahead of time you have to say, hey, I want to see Venice or I want to see. That’s a great question.

They use that. We have a remote control app. It can be used on someone’s phone or a computer and they just log in or a QR code on the window. They hit the QR code and then they have a library of different views they can choose.

So depending on what you’re in the mood for. What’s great about this, especially in senior living. If someone you know went they went on their honeymoon in Hawaii or south of France, they can go back there and it will feel like they’re back in the beautiful hotel suite, without the cost of the plane tickets, without the hotel. They’re there and it feels fantastic.

It’s fantastic. So you brought up a term non pharmological wellness, So talk to me about that and maybe I don’t know if there’s studies that have been done or what experience you’ve had, you know, so far. I mean it’s an interesting term. Thank you.

Well, yeah, it’s someone else taught me. As you know, my background originally was in film and media content, and so I’ve learned a lot myself. But someone labeled this as a non pharmacological intervention, meaning that it’s non pharmacological meaning many times in asists of living in memory care, people are on medication to calm them down, to keep them relaxed, to keep them not being agitated. And they found that our windows provide that calmness and changes people’s mood without having to take any medicine.

And so it’s a non pharmacological intervention. And someone also said, all of a sudden, the physical space of a room becomes medicine. Right, you have a wall and it doesn’t have any health benefits. We’ll put liquid view on there, and now it has health benefits.

It calms and relaxes people, and that’s very exciting. I didn’t start this. The idea came to me, not for a wellness product, was no more of a design or arch texture product. But I mentioned Stanford.

We got connected with them about two and a half maybe three years ago now, and they and I really learned with them that it does really change people. It changes their mood, it changes their vital signs because it feels so calming. Well, what about sleep? Anything any experience yet with that, which is quite challenging for many people, but certainly the senior population. Well, the only I think that the data we have about sleep a’s that it just calms the nervous system down, so it’s easier to fall asleep if you are not anxious, or if you are less anxious and more calm, for sure, And I think that that’s really that’s really a big part of it.

Also, we talked about it matches circadian rhythms. So if someone wakes up and they look it’s eleven o’clock at night, they’re looking at liquid view, it’s nighttime in Hawaii or or in Miami or wherever they want to be, they. Only see the lights. So somebody might just have like, oh, you can just go to YouTube and just get a content look of the beach.

Well that’s great, but at nighttime, you want people to realize that it’s nighttime outside. So we’ve found we’ve had some customers who’ve installed this in bedrooms. We have a hotel we’re working with Marriout right now and they’re putting these in some hotel suites and the jaw marry Out in Houston because the idea of the common effect. So we are giving people So if you wake up in your hotel room or your or your bedroom and you have liquid view, and you look at the view as you walk to the bathroom or get a glass of water or something, it’s going to be it’s going to be the same quality of light nighttime as it is outside your actual window.

So I think for sleep it goes consistently with circadian rhythms. You know, this has certainly happened to me. I don’t know if it’s happened to you, but sometimes you you know, you check into a hotel, I’m not talking for a vacation, for business, and for whatever reason, you check in lane they give you as a room that the room’s nice, and you open up the shade and you look out there and you’re looking at garbage or whatever. You look horrible.

Could it replace the actual window itself? Yes, And that’s a great note. And so in the case that I mentioned that that JW. Marriott in Houston, they’re doing a remodel and this is going to replace. This is going to be on four.

Of the you know, in the in the suites, and so I think the idea there are there are some issues with egress right in terms of if you need to leave there’s a fire or something like that. But we’re designing a system where you could open the window, I like on a hinge, so you still have access to the actual window. But I think that we are focusing on hospitality properties even if one or two percent, if ninety eight percent of the rooms are amazing in their views, but one or two percent are terrible, we can change that and we could give the guests the opportunity. What city do they want to wake up in? Because even if you are in a nice hotel whatever city in New York and you wake up and you’re looking at a brick wall, that doesn’t matter if you’re really and so we have a very nice, you know, view of Central Park as an example, and you could have that nice ten thousand dollars a night room for paying something much much less.

Right, I mean, is it economically? Does it make sense even for an individual who maybe their parents living at at home and they don’t have a great view in their bedroom. I’m talking just one location. Now, this is well doesn’t make any you know, we don’t have to get into pricing, but does it make sense? I think it depends on the on the user experience. And you know how long is if someone’s gonna be in the room all the time and they’re they’re they’re better and then they answered yes, because if they’re just there, you.

Know, they’re there for a couple of days. I mean, I think in the hotel example is different. If all of a sudden, you know, you can’t run out of room, if you don’t have windows, no one, no one’s gonna want it. And so this sent and is to be able to give the property a little more value.

I think that, but it’s but it’s something we’re still you know, we’re still trying to understand. I think for an individual it does have benefits. We are talking to some assisted living providers that maybe we might have a developing a leasing program or for a couple of few hundred dollars a month, people could lease the window and they’d have access to that as well. So we’re trying to have different ways where people can have it.

But it’s really trying to understand the benefit of it, you know, to that individual, and of course cost is important too. But if we find that if it calms people down, it makes their nervous system better. It lowers their heart rate, it lowers their blood pressure. These are good things, especially if they don’t have to take medication and have the side effects of being really groggy all the time because of that.

So if you can say, all right, I have to buy this, it’s going to cost me, you know, a few. Hundred dollars a month or whatever the lease. We haven’t done the. Price, but if it’s that’s going to be that’s a huge value if you don’t have to take as much medicine that has positive you know, positives.

So where’s the content coming from? So you’re building that content all the time. I mean, we’re the actual what everybody’s looking at. You had you come from that industry, so you’ve been building that content for years and continue. To Yeah, we have ten we have ten twenty four hour views built and we’re shooting more each year.

And so the idea is that and we’re using the same IMAX level camera they shoot Avatar, their top gun or F one. It’s a real movie camera. It might get a little too nerdy for some of. Your you know, some of your guests here, but it’s you know, one tearabyte every twenty five minutes.

So it’s a huge amount. Of data because it really feels because we want it to feel real. So we have a ten person film crew because we shoot for thirty hours and we have different shifts, and so we already know it sounds like. It’s really a terrible part of my job.

We have to scout the world and we have to find beautiful locations and it takes about three days to find one location. It’s not just oh, this works great. There’s a lot of issues that because. We’re trying to find a view that looks great during the day and at night.

I know you’re in the you know have roots in the Bay Area, and we did some beautiful to shoot at the Pharalyan Islands. Well, the Fairlands are beautiful, but at night. As many people probably don’t know, the Paralyn Islands are thirty miles west of the Golden gate Bridge. Some people call them the Galapagos of the Pacific.

There’s beautiful nature there and we did a custom shoot or a customer wanted it, but at night time it’s pitch black because you’re thirty miles away from civilization. So for that we then went to the Golden gate Bridge at night. So it’s our first Shoot, we’re during the day, you’re at the Farlowns, this beautiful view all the nature and the animals and the seals and the birds, and then at night it transforms this beautiful view of them Ran Headlands looking at the Golden Gate Bridge. So we spent a lot of time finding perfect locations.

Yeah. I mentioned to you before we started the interview that I’ve been in the senior care industry and more specifically in the senior living space. So in the time that you’ve kind of been involved with it, what have you learned? What what have you learned about senior living and how it’s transforming. I mean it’s you know, as people say, we’re in the silver tsunami now, So anything you could share and what you’ve learned, well.

I’ve learned and granted I’m looking through the through the lens if you will, of liquid view, and I find no pun intend no. Pun intended, But I found and this is new. I mean, I’m you know, my mom is of the age or if I can’t say her age on the air, I’ll I’ll get in trouble. But the age where we’re looking at assisted living for her, and so I’ve gone there.

But before that I would go by myself for liquid view and I would meet and I’ve learned is that you know, it is something that would be nice to have in a lobby of a building of a community that people have and assisted living, but you need to have it in memory care. And that sounds self serving, but it really is true that you know, their staff can work with more people. It relaxes the residents. It’s a differentiator from other communities too, when people are coming in and it really makes a difference in people’s lives.

There’s a woman in. A community in San Francisco and we have footage of Salcelito, California, near San Francisco, and apparently she knows when this one brown seal comes in the morning and she wants to be to see her favorite brown seal in the morning in Saucelito and she comes there every day. And I just love that story. I love that.

People you know feel, you know, feel that this is real and they connect with the content. And we’re also finding people are using it for programs. So they might have a luau and show the Hawaii and have the Hawaii view. They may have something for you know, pasta and have the view from Venice, Italy.

So it’s also helping programmatically, but it makes me feel good that we can engage people and make people feel more grounded and less agitated and just you know, and just happier. Yeah, you know what came to mind. And again I mentioned this to you before because I’ve been in many memory care locations and one of the greatest challenges is, uh, we call them excess seekers. You know, they’re they’re going to that door to go through that door.

Not that they’re trying to escape, but they’re going somewhere, they’re going to school, they’re back there. You know, they’re living in their past right and sometimes that’s challenging all right when that happens and an alarm goes off and all of that. And I just think that, from what I’m understanding of your liquid view, what a tremendous thing that would be to put near or even on the door to keep people from trying to go through it. Has that been brought up to you at all, not this specific like on the door, but I think to engage people where they don’t want to leave if you can, and you’re looking at you know, Sasolito or the French Riviera and it sounds it feels like they’re why would you want to go? Why would you want to leave? Because you can choose from some of the most beautiful locations in the world.

And they said they use their phone or QR code as a remote control. They hit it and then then they could change the view. And so that’s all it gives people in control. Right, because if you want the more urban experience, they have this great, you know, footage of New York or Miami.

But then if you want something that’s that’s more rural, you can go to the fair. Right, you could go out to Rodeo Beach also in north northern California and see something that’s just beautiful. And so given the choice to people, we have found keeps people happier and hopefully we don’t have any hard data on this, just anecdotally, but keeps people inside their community and not wanting. To that’s great.

So, Mitch, we’re going to take a quick break, I promise just to recognize our sponsor and we come back. I want to certainly want to talk to you about you know, your your thoughts as relates to the future of technology with senior living, and also give you the opportunity to tell people all the wonderful things you’re doing and how they could learn more. Okay, so do you know anyone who may be concerned about an older driver well Senior Care Authorities Beyond Driving with Dignity program is a facilitated self assessment program for older drivers. This program has been designed to serve as a vital tool to facilitate older drivers and their families is they make the appropriate decisions regarding the future of one safe driving career.

If the individual is a safe driver, an advisor will provide a him or her with strategies on how to remain a safe driver as they progress through the aging process. If driving retirement is the appropriate decision, then the individual and their family are offered possible alternatives, resources and a specific plan to ensure a smooth and successful transition from the driver’s seat to the passenger seat. So to learn more, you could go to www dot Beyond Driving with Dignity dot com and you could connect with a Senior Care authority advisor in your area. So we’re back with Mitch Braff, who’s the founder of liquid View, which creates wellness focused digital windows for windowless spaces.

So Mitch commercial time for you tell people how they could learn more about you, whatever you’d like to share. Oh that’s very nicey to say, Well, thank you again for having me. If people would like information, the best thing thing go is they can just go to our website. It’s the liquidview dot com and there we have videos, we have pictures.

We talked earlier. I was likely enough to be on Shark Tank with liquid View earlier here in January, and we have a link to that. There. We have a link to the Stanford study and people could see the different styles of windows we have and the and the sizes, and it’s a it’s a great way for people to learn.

We also have a great Instagram page which is liquid dot Views as a place to learn. And I would say if people have people have questions, I mean. It really is. We talked about this before too.

This is a new product category. I want people to start thinking they have a windowless room someone, they can have a loved one live there, could be a basement, could be a room without a window, could be that hotel room that with a with a brick wall. And we want people to start to realize they can. Put in a window that will feel real it doesn’t look it looks.

Real, yes, but it feels real. We work with architects and designers and builders to make something to make an experience, not just it’s not a piece of art. It’s a window. And that’s what I really want people to understand.

Great. Great, So, I mean, obviously you’re a very advanced thinker and i’d love to hear your just your thoughts on what’s happening on the on the technology front in senior living. What you see the future uh in in senior living from a tech technological standpoint. Well, I think technology is going to have a much bigger role in you know, in so many different lives.

I was at this program where I’ve met other people. You know, this isn’t the space that I came in, so I’m in other parties. There’s there’s a great there’s a great product that actually has as sensors in it. So if someone is in their bed and they wet their sheet, they’re wet their bed, it will send a message to the to to to the people at the front desk to let let them know.

And that’s a simple innovation there, right, It’s just it’s a little sensor and it sends an email or a text message. I love that. I think with what we’re doing with liquid View, we are finding something that you know, we are probably something because of the quality of the cameras and of the displays, you know, we can make something that feels like a real window. And inevitably we’re going to.

Be using AI as well that too. I think that’s coming in every you know, coming for all of us. I don’t think people are able to make a twenty five review with AI. I’m not worried about that.

But we can add other elements as part of our IP. We have something that’s part of our patents called unexpected events. So if you’re looking at your liquid liquid View window and go back to Sauce Liedal California. On the water, and all of a.

Sudden, we could have a boat that comes by that really wasn’t there. And if you chose fantastical events, and you can see a dragon fly across the screen. And so we can use. Technology to really engage people and really bring it closer.

So if you want to see certain types of elements or content, we can do that, but using AI to help generate this for us, and so I think that we want to make things. You know, we want to make experiences easier, very humanists and very engaging in a cold We’re trying to make something that is digital, but I want it to feel analog. I wanted to feel like a real experience and not like you’re looking at, you know, an image on a TV. And so I think technology, as it improves, will make it feel more real.

But I want to make it feel more analog. I don’t want to make it feel digital. I want it to feel more analog. And I think that technology will change that.

Does that makes sense? Yeah, absolutely absolutely. You know you had mentioned earlier just you brought up one or two stories of just things you’ve heard about residents saying, our family saying about your product, maybe at a senior living community, and anything else you could share with our listeners that come to mind. About different Yeah, I mean I think that we’ve had different ways. I mentioned the woman with the seal.

I think that people have We’re in Assists of Living in Mill Valley, California, the Redwoods, and they in their memory care. They have a hallway and because it’s memory care, there’s no windows in. The hallway for the safety of the residents, and they have one there, and they said that the woman who lives across, because it’s in the hallway across, it has the best view and the whole property because she can open her door and she can see anything she wants. And I think that I really really like that.

I really like that story. I found someone that was a really interesting story. We have a customer in El Pasa, Texas, and he used to. Be in Hawaii, Hawaii.

Working I believe, I believe he has a job for the government, and they moved him from Hawaii where he had this beautiful condo on the beach to El Paso, Texas, where he’s looking at inland. And so he spent all this time and resources remodeling his home hundreds of thousands of dollars. He told this to me, And the best thing he has is his liquiv windows. He put them in his master bedroom.

He could have put them anywhere, but he wants to wake up on the beach. And even though this, you know, because it feels so real, and I love that story where we are improving people’s lives and he misses the ocean, and now he can have the ocean, and it feels he can go to bed and wake up at sunrise and see this beautiful sunrise in. The beach, and I love that. And so I think the stories where people are putting this in their living in spaces, they’re engaging with it, you know, I really love those stories.

Yeah, So I just want to give you the opportunity. I don’t want you to finish We finish this up, and you sayfoy, I wish Frank would have asked me this. So I’m going to give you the opportunity of any message you would like to communicate to our listeners, knowing we got not only families listening to this, but people within the senior living industry listening as well. So anything you’d like to.

Share, well, I really appreciate the opportunity. I would say that if people have windowless rooms or rooms with windows with terrible views, we’re really hoping that they will consider liquid View to transform the room into into really a spot of tranquility. We know there’s a lot of anxiety being in a windowless room and that we could really make people feel like they’re there. I’m hoping people will consider it.

They will go to the web site the lookof You dot com help put that plug in and they’ll see it. And if there is an opportunity to bring in light and you know, light and the sounds of the being outside and just that whole experience of watching a day come in twenty four hours, they will consider our windows to improve in the space. Great Mitch Brad check it out the liquidview dot com. Rich, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you, thanks for having me with an honor to be here. Yeah, thank you everybody for joining us. Please please be safe and we’ll talk to everybody next week. You’ve been listening to Boomers Today with Frank Sampson.

To learn more about today’s show, visit Boomerstoday radio dot com and join us next time for another edition of Boomers Today.