i-pot helps elders feel less lonely

No, it's not the stuff that Ellen Feiss smokes. It's an electric kettle that keeps track of when it's used and wirelessly sends a signal to a server with the data. Members of the service can see records of i-pot usage data, and twice a day a designated recipient gets an email with the three most recent usage times. The idea is to notify friends and relatives of a sudden change in an elderly person's tea habits, in order to act as an early warning system in case of emergency. The i-pot is in use in Japan, where an increasing number of the elderly are living, and dying, alone. Seniors who use the i-pot report feeling less alone, knowing that somebody else is able to monitor them via the data sent by the kettle.