COGKNOW: Development of an ICT Device to Support People with Dementia

Objective: To develop a successful user-validated cognitive prosthetic device with associated services to help persons with mild dementia. Setting: The ICT solution will be developed by a consortium of eleven institutes in eight countries in Europe. It will be tested and evaluated by users (persons with dementia and their carers) in 3 European cities - Amsterdam, Belfast and Luleå. Methods: To identify and analyse the needs of persons with dementia, workshops and interviews were conducted with Alzheimer patients suffering from mild dementia, and their carers in three European cities. A literature search was also performed to identify existing proven effective ICT solutions for persons with dementia. Results: The most important needs and the most preferred ICT solutions identified by participants were (i) Activity reminders e.g. for eating meals; (ii) Item locators; (iii) Picture dialling to keep in contact with family and friends; (iv) Support for pleasure activities; (v) Enhancement of feelings of safety. Conclusion: Based on the needs identified, a prototype solution will be built, tested and modified as an iterative process. The device will ultimately be evaluated to see if it can enhance feelings of autonomy and quality of life of persons with dementia

Home based assistive technologies for people with mild dementia

Those suffering from mild dementia exhibit impairments of memory, thought and reasoning. It has been recognised that deployment of technological solutions to address such impairments may have a major positive impact on the quality of life and can be used to help perform daily life activities hence maintaining a level of independence. In this paper we present an overview of our current investigations into how technology can be used to improve the quality of life of the ageing person with mild dementia. Specifically, we detail the methodology adopted for our work, outline results attained from a series of workshops to identify user needs and finally present how these user needs have been mapped onto the design of home based assistive technologies