Callly

The recent expansion of digital technology allowed many people all over the world to connect one-another in the quickest and fastest way, but this is not the case of some specific social groups (elderly people, low-income people, people with disabilities). This phenomenon, called digital divide, is the gap that exists between individuals able to access to modern information and communication technology and those who lack access. Many elderly people, for example, still have difficulties in using technology, and this technologic deficit makes them more and more isolated in a period of mandatory quarantine. We are a group made up of students from different Italian universities, with a heterogeneous academic background and the common desire of doing something useful for the isolation of people, caused by the pandemic. This common aim has inspired us to rethink the way in which not only our grandparents, but everyone unable to use a smartphone or a laptop, can partially solve the problem of solitude linked to the quarantine. Thanks to our idea, those people will be able to interface themselves with a low-cost and intuitive video-calling device, named Callly.