Give a Dog ICT Devices: How Smartphone-Carrying Assistance Dogs May Help People with Dementia

Abstract—People with dementia suffer from memory loss, speech disabilities, and many other problems. A smartphone could benefit them, because it offers functions and applications that may alleviate their disabilities. However, some people with dementia refuse to carry a smartphone. Many of them dislike doing the tasks ordered by such devices due to a lack of psychological interaction. Therefore, we are exploring the concept of having a dog carry a smartphone on its back to assist these people with their daily lives. In this paper, we first show that, with a little training, a dog can be made to run to its owner when the smartphone on its back emits an alarm. This result suggeted that the concept will allow applications and devices for the people with dementia to become the more useful things of their daily lives. Then, we propose an application wherein people with mild cognitive impairment can be reminded what they were going to do a few minutes ago. We also propose a support method using a vibration-sensing device that causes a dog to run up to its severe-dementia person who is trying to open a door to go outside. Finally, we describe an experiment that examined how a person with dementia might respond to a dog who “talks ” to them. (Of course, the talker was a person at a different location speaking through the smartphone on the dog’s back.) These suggestions and the results of the experiment show that, with the help of a dog, a smartphone can offer better assistance for dementia patients. Keywords—Android; Care facility; Memory loss I