Abstract
Increases in life expectancy and falling birth rates has resulted in an increased proportion of the population aged over the age of 65, with 75% of this population having at least one chronic disease. One of the most common chronic diseases effecting older persons is dementia. Dementia affects both the person with dementia (PwD) and their caregivers. Research has identified a number of unmet needs for the PwD. These include the needs for personalised information, support for daily activities, and support to maintain social contact and safety. To address these needs and those of caregivers a number of technical evolutions and laboratory-based evaluations were carried out using mobile and wearable technologies. The first phase of the research involved the development of a technology solution aimed at addressing dementia-specific needs. A Real-time social Reminder and Reminiscence System (R³S) was proposed and consists of two major components, miLifeCam for data acquisition and a Reminiscence Tool for event review. R3S was evaluated on six healthy younger participants, four older participants and five caregivers over the course of six experiments. The evaluations included the application of structured questionnaires, assessment of quantifiable eye-tracking systems, analysis of usage logs and collection and interpretation of physiological signals. The Faculty of Computing and Engineering Research Ethics Filter Committee at Ulster University granted ethical approval for these studies.Findings from these studies have identified the needs and wants of caregivers when not present with the PwD, specifically relating to food, medication and physical location in addition to their perceptions of assistive technologies. A novel technology approach to the real-time identification of social interactions was presented and evaluated. Physiological changes to the review of the life-logged images were recorded and assessed. Recommendations for the further development of mobile and wearable applications for the PwD and their caregiver were established.
| Date of Award | Nov 2015 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Paul Mc Cullagh (Supervisor) & Huiru (Jane) Zheng (Supervisor) |
Keywords
- dementia care
- assistive technology
- mobile and wearable systems
- caregiver support
- reminiscence therapy
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- Standard