Based on the price of the Idem smart clock it was going to have to be something special to distinguish it from other display clocks designed for people living with dementia. And it does in many ways. This product, I know, has been extensively tested with groups of people living with dementia and I had some of my friends take a look as well.

The Idem smart clock does all the usual stuff a digital clock does. Shows you the time in large font and allows you to change the colours and background for clear visibility. It displays the date and the day and the time of the day i.e. morning or afternoon. That would be the very least you would expect from a digital display clock, right? So, what sets the idem Smart Clock apart from the rest?

The Idem smart clock is far more than a digital display clock. The magic is in the smart word. With the Idem smart clock you can set up reminders via the free Idem phone app.

Medication times that repeat, appointments, to drink that repeats, the list goes on. The reminder appears on the screen nice and big, as well as the Idem smart clock talking to you, reading the message. Underneath the reminder is a big green button that needs to be pressed to acknowledge that the reminder has been understood or completed. It is not that smart that it can watch your loved one take their medication, so it relies on you pushing the button after you have done so. It is smart enough to notify you via the app that the button has been pushed. Should the button not be pushed it will notify by a message to your phone that there is the possibility they have missed the reminder.

Here is the magic… You can then via the app send a text or voice message to the Idem smart clock. The message will appear on the device and be spoken as well or your voice message played. The person they must do the same, they can acknowledge the message by pushing the green button again. If there is no response to the message, then again, a message is sent to yourphone.There are a few settings you can set when sending a message. Does the message repeat? How much time you allow for the response? How the app should notify you should the response be accepted or not, just to mention a few. You can send messages any time of the day as many times as you like. The response will always be the same that requires a physical action for the person. A push of a button to understand, complete, yes, or no. You the get that message back to your phone.

In addition to a reminder the Idem smart clock allows you to add events by linking it to a calendar, this is a handy function because you can add a note to their calendar and then there is no need to add it to the Idem smart clock later. You can send messages, and notes. All working the same as above. I think I could go as far as to say that this is a display clock that monitors and communicates with the person and you.

(Please note: the requests for the user to press a button to respond to alerts and notify the phone app is optional and can be set for each message, event or reminder.)