Abstract. This paper presents markerClock, a communication appliance embedded into a clock and designed for seniors as a simple and intuitive device. MarkerClock enhances seniors’ connectedness to their social networks, particularly friends, neighbors and relatives, therefore increasing the potential of human communication for providing and receiving care. In doing so, markerClock supports reciprocal care behaviors observed during our initial user study, which could be used to leverage the need for institutionalized care. This paper describes markerClock and its implementation of both passive and active communications. This is an author version of the article published in Springer-Verlag - LNCS and presented at INTERACT 2007, Rio de Ja˜nero, Brasil. Copyright (c) 2007 Springer-Verlag
Yann Riche, Wendy E. Mackay