Smart Cane

The smart cane is just now coming onto the scene and slowly making it's way on to the public market. After it's release in early 2013, it's popularity and development has taken off. Though it is a "smart cane" it still holds the very basic function of assisting one with walking. What makes it so special are features- such as GPS, Wifi and a heart rate monitor. The GPS can help one get around and help one find specific locations, and with the target audience being the elderly, the GPS feature can be used to keep track of the elderly, and the heart rate monitor is helpful to make sure that vital sign is reading normally. I predict this being a mainstream item in the next 20 years in the elderly community, but in a more compact, developed version. The weight of the cane I think would have to be considerably lighter, even though it is relatively light. Also, I think the versatility would need to be increased, i.e, more features. Features needed would be clock, appointment reminders, and potentially even a phone/ pager ability.