ELDERLY residents across Hampshire in need of vital home help could soon be living with computer carers that talk.

The hi-tech scheme may sound like it comes straight out of a sci-fi film but it is set to become a reality for pensioners before the end of the year.

Social services bosses have turned to TV boffin Professor Heinz Wolff for help in their fight against hospital bed-blocking.

Brunel University's Prof Wolff - best known as the presenter of BBC's The Great Egg Race - is the brains behind a new computer system that keeps a close eye on the elderly.

The Millennium Homes software uses special sensors connected to the toilet, bed, lights, floors, taps, locks and cookers in the OAP's own home.

They pick up information including whether the occupant is still in bed, what the temperature is and whether cookers have been left on or doors unlocked. Any problems will cause an in-house computer to talk to the resident and, if it gets no reply, will alert an on-call carer by telephone.

The computer kit can be easily installed in any house, meaning fewer pensioners will need to move into residential homes to be looked after.

That's why Hampshire County Council chiefs are looking seriously at bringing in the state-of-the-art system.

With care home beds being lost around the county at the same time as a shortage in home carers, they want to find new ways of helping pensioners to live in their own homes.

A high-powered seminar is being held tomorrow to unveil the groundbreaking scheme to housing and care bosses from across the county.

Assistant director of Hampshire's social services Andrew Brooker hopes families will soon be able to pick and choose the right system for their elderly relatives off the shelf.

Mr Brooker told the Daily Echo: "We are not looking at it as a cost-saving exercise but as a way of maintaining people's independence.

"I would like to do it immediately but these things always take a lot longer. I would be very hesitant to put a time frame on it but within nine months we might have some schemes up and running."

The scheme is currently being piloted in Greenwich and has attracted attention from as far afield as Japan.