Case study in SenseCam use as an intervention technology for early-stage dementia

Dementia is a growing concern with an estimated 41,740 in Ireland and 35.6 million people living with dementia worldwide. In the absence of a medical cure for dementia, pervasive technologies are emerging to support people with dementia. Among such applications is lifelogging, which involves continuously wearing technology to capture a large part of the wearer’s life emerging. The recorded data allows clinicians and others to detect behaviour changes or help in memory recall. This study explores the use of SenseCam lifelogging technology as a therapeutic intervention for people with early stage dementia. Based on the principles of Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) it aims to engage them in meaningful discussions about their recent past as captured in the SenseCam images. These discussions offer potential to help maintain the person’s identity. The preliminary findings from the first case study highlight some functional issues of SenseCam use within CST principles

SenseCam intervention based on cognitive ctimulation therapy framework for early-stage dementia.

Estimates suggest that Ireland will have 50,000 people with dementia by 2016 and over 100,000 by 2036. Combined with European total costs estimated in 2005 at €130 billion. In the absence of a cure for dementia there is a real need to develop pervasive, user-centered technologies to enhance the well-being and quality of life of people with dementia. This study explores the use of Microsoft SenseCam images within the principles of Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) to engage people with early stage dementia in meaningful discussion. The SenseCam intervention, like the CST approach, is aimed at general enhancement of quality of life and global cognitive and social functioning

Case studies in SenseCam use for cognitive stimulation therapy in early-stage dementia.

Estimates suggest that Ireland will have 50,000 people with dementia by 2016 and over 100,000 by 2036. Combined with European total costs are estimated in 2005 at €130 billion. As dementia is incurable there is a real need to support the existing dementia health care practices and carers by innovative technology use. Using technology to improve mental health of the people with dementia is one way of such support. This research explores intervention which uses Microsoft SenseCam images within the principles of Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) to engage people with early stage dementia in meaningful discussion. This SenseCam intervention, like the CST approach, aims at general enhancement of quality of life and global cognitive and social functioning

Case studies in therapeutic SenseCam use aimed at identity maintenance in early stage dementia

In the absence of a medical cure for memory loss new technologies specialised in pervasive imaging are being incorporated into interventions for dementia. The practice of lifelogging is a digital capture of life experiences typically through mobile devices such as SenseCam. The lightweight wearable digital camera passively captures about 3,000 images a day. Lifelogging results in personal, recent prompts, potentially encouraging sharing of personal memories. This research investigated the incorporation of lifelogging technology into a therapeutic approach aimed to support people with dementia by using the Case Study method, an exploratory and descriptive approach. The case study is a method of empirical inquiry that enables investigation of phenomenon within its real life context. SenseCam therapy aimed to stimulate the cognition of a person with dementia, with support of their personal identity as its primary goal. SenseCam images were used as cues to meaningful discussions about the person’s recent memories. The images enabled a construction of a particular version of the participants’ identities mainly based in their recent past. On the contrary participants seemed to valorise their identity of their distant past. The SenseCam identity also contained uncensored details from participants’ lives as revealed by review of SenseCam images. The exposing nature of SenseCam images posed risks to the users’ privacy and showed the potential ethical risks of using lifelogging technology with people with dementia. There is limited literature on the practical recommendations on how to use lifelogging devices and how they affect people with dementia. The results from this research indicate that a number of factors should be considered when using lifelogging technology with people with dementia. Firstly the contextual factors of people with dementia including the level of cognitive impairment, existing coping mechanisms and the interaction patterns with the carer need to be considered. Secondly the technology should be used within a therapeutic framework and tailored to suit the individual needs of both people with dementia and their carers. Lastly intimate and unexpected details from the participant’s life should be discussed in an ethical and sensitive manner. Implications of not working within these boundaries show clear potential for undermining the human rights and potentially the wellbeing of people with dementia

SenseCam: A new tool for memory rehabilitation?

The emergence of life-logging technologies has led neuropsychologist to focus on understanding how this new technology could help patients with memory disorders. Despite the growing number of studies using life-logging technologies, a theoretical framework supporting its effectiveness is lacking. This review focuses on the use of life-logging in the context of memory rehabilitation, particularly the use of SenseCam, a wearable camera allowing passive image capture. In our opinion, reviewing SenseCam images can be effective for memory rehabilitation only if it provides more than an assessment of prior occurrence in ways that reinstates previous thoughts, feelings and sensory information, thus stimulating recollection. Considering the fact that, in memory impairment, self-initiated processes are impaired, we propose that the environmental support hypothesis can explain the value of SenseCam for memory retrieval. Twenty-five research studies were selected for this review and despite the general acceptance of the value of SenseCam as a memory technique, only a small number of studies focused on recollection. We discuss the usability of this tool to improve episodic memory and in particular, recollectio

The everyday functioning of individuals with cognitive difficulties and their families : going beyond neuropsychological assessment

The portfolio has three parts:Part One is a systematic literature review, in which the theoretical, conceptual and empirical literature relating to the active involvement of family members in interventions for adults with memory impairment is reviewed.Part Two is an empirical paper, which explores how objective cognitive performance translates into self-reported cognitive skills and diabetes self-management in individual with Type 1 Diabetes.Part Three comprises the appendices

Health Educ Behav

As the segment of the population 65 years of age or older continues to grow, the number of individuals with dementia increases proportionally, highlighting the need to design therapies that meet the social and emotional needs of people with dementia. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are potential venues for supporting the delivery of such therapies, including reminiscence therapy (RT), which is a non-pharmacological intervention involving the prompting of past memories, often with artifacts such as old photographs or music for therapeutic benefits such as the facilitation of social interactions or the increase of self-esteem. This paper systematically examines the scientific literature on the use of ICT for facilitating RT to assess the current state of the evidence and identify future trends. We searched the PubMed (1966-2013), ACM (1954-2013), and PsycINFO (1908-2013) repositories using the keywords dementia and reminiscence. Three hundred eighty-six articles were retrieved, 44 of which met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Findings of the systematic review include that there are benefits to using ICT for RT interventions. Some of these benefits are access to rich and engaging multimedia reminiscence materials, opportunities for people with dementia to participate in social interactions and take ownership of conversations, and a reduction of barriers due to motor deficits during interactions with media. Future studies should explore the types and content of media beneficial to individuals at different stages of dementia.T15 LM007442/LM/NLM NIH HHS/United StatesU38 HM000454/HM/NCHM CDC HHS/United States2T15LM007442/LM/NLM NIH HHS/United States2016-04-26T00:00:00Z25274711PMC484484

User Interaction Templates for the Design of Lifelogging Systems

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