What if your refrigerator gave you breakfast suggestions? Or your bed checked you for health problems while you slept? Our aging population is spurring the creation of a host of friendly household gadgets, including everything from floors that absorb the impact of falls, to mattress pads that assess vital signs and alert health care professionals to any irregularities. Outside the home, technology is in the works to create personalized radio frequency identification cards, which can tell grocery shelves to lower to your eye level or help gym machines adjust to your ability.

The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is exploring advances like these, along with the physical and emotional experience of aging, in their project “Brave Old World.”

With the number of Americans age 65 and older expected to rise 65% by the year 2020, “Brave Old World” seeks to answer the increasingly important question of what it’s like to grow old, and how our communities can adapt. Their website features interactive pieces like “Growing Old in Three Minutes” and “Welcome to Elderland,” a preview of how our elder-friendly communities might look in 2035.

Among the resources for the Columbia project is Partners’ “Aging in Place” initiative, a comprehensive approach to elder-adaptation, emphasizing the need to keep older citizens in their homes and to recognize them as a community asset. Older adults can contribute talent through volunteer and civic activities, provide new audiences for the arts, and increase local spending, among other benefits. However, to take advantage of these benefits, communities need to help adults age in place by embracing new technologies, providing a wide range of housing options, cultivating appropriate cultural and recreational activities, and making neighborhoods more walkable.