A trip to the Grand Canyon or the depths of the ocean bed are just some of the places older people are being encouraged to visit thanks to Viewpoint’s use of virtual reality.

The Edinburgh organisation, which is Scotland’s oldest housing association, today celebrates its 70th anniversary with a special event at the capital’s Corn Exchange.

Viewpoint runs three care homes and provides supported accommodation for more than 1300 people in Edinburgh, the Lothians, and Fife.

To mark the occasion it’s demonstrating how it’s using technology to enable older people to live life to the full. Viewpoint has started introducing VR to enable its tenants and residents to take journeys they would otherwise never make.

‘Tovertafel’ is another innovation the organisation is trialling. Dutch for ‘magic table,’ a box with an inbuilt specialist projector, infrared sensors and speaker is mounted on a ceiling to create a series of interactive light games on a table below. The animations, specially designed for people with mid to late stage dementia, stimulate physical and social activity.

Dorry McLaughlin, Viewpoint’s chief executive, said: “We’re all about creating joy in later years and living life to the full. Viewpoint began as a home for single women who found themselves homeless after WW2, a radical idea at the time. 70 years on we’re still pioneering and are always looking for creative ways to meet people’s needs and bring greater fulfilment.”

As well looking ahead to technologies that could be used regularly to improve the quality of life for older people in social care, Viewpoint will also cast its glance back to the past with its recreation of a 1940s living room.

When it comes to the present, software which enables simple medical checks, such as blood pressure, to be carried out in the comfort of someone’s home and results sent straight to their doctor, will also be on show.