VirtuEnkel — Patient Tech Support for Seniors
A retro desk lamp that coaches seniors through their own smartphones — using voice and a laser that points at the screen.
VirtuEnkel is an AI-powered device disguised as a vintage lamp that helps seniors with smartphone tasks: describe your problem out loud, and it replies with spoken steps while a small laser points at exactly where to tap. Informed by interviews and prototype testing with seniors 75+.
Overview
For people over 75, the barrier to digital tasks usually isn’t ability — it’s the lack of patient, available help. VirtuEnkel is a device disguised as a familiar vintage lamp: you place your phone underneath, describe your problem out loud, and it replies with spoken steps while a small laser points to exactly where to tap.
Prototyping Process
TODO quick explainer what is in the system and how it works…
What We Learned
We worked through interviews with seniors 75+ (via Munich’s DigitaleHilfe program) and several prototype iterations tested with the same group. The recurring finding: familiarity and trust matter more than features.
- A manual microphone button beat voice-activated listening — seniors wanted to control when they were heard.
- A non-technical, lamp-like aesthetic lowered the barrier to trying it at all.
- Contextual help (pointing at the exact tap target) beat any added functionality.
TODO - They had all different services/ Apps by banks, different phones etc. And they wanted to be selfrelient and not call their grandchildren or other too much with “problems”
My Role
I built the working prototype end to end - hardware (Raspberry Pi 5, two-axis servo laser, mic, speaker), German speech recognition, flow management, and the live lamp-to-phone connection. Also I facilitated the ideation workshops as well as conducting the interviews.