COMPUTER SERVICES: Good Morning! Are You O.K.?

Many people hang up when they answer the phone and hear a computerized voice, figuring it is probably a prerecorded sales pitch. Not the folks in Osage, Iowa. Their police department pays for a telephone-dialing computer service that automatically checks up on older people who live alone. At the same time every day, the computer calls them and says, “Good Morning! Are you O.K. ?” If they answer “Yes,” the computer hangs up and goes on to the next number. If no one answers, the computer alerts the police.

Developed by Bruce Johnson, a local computer hobbyist, the program saved the life of Clyde Ritter, 73, when he fell into a diabetic coma, and rescued another older resident, whose hands had become stuck in a window.