Most elderly-care technology is designed for the family who buys it. We have tried to do the opposite. Avanti Care is designed first for Margaret — the person who actually lives with the robot — and second for the son or daughter who sets it up.
That inversion changes real decisions. She interacts by voice and presence and never has to touch a screen. The physical shutter hands her control of her own privacy, including from her own family. The robot behaves consistently, because surprise is not a neutral quality in someone’s home.
It also changes how we treat a false alarm. A false fall alert is not a harmless bug that a later release will tidy up. It is an ambulance sent to the door of an embarrassed woman who was reaching for a dropped remote control, and the cost of it lands entirely on her. Detection thresholds favour a checked-in false negative over that.
On her data: the commitment is that your data is processed and stored on UK servers, under UK law. That commitment is designed into the platform, for her records as much as anyone’s.