Electronic Spatial Assistance for People with Dementia: Choosing the Right Device.
Schneider, Cornelia, and Stefan Henneberger. (2014): Electronic Spatial Assistance for People with Dementia: Choosing the Right Device. In: Technologies 2 (2) (June 13): 96–114. doi:10.3390/technologies2020096.
The demographic change and ageing in Europe will lead to a growing number of people suffering from dementia. Consequently, costs for public health will increase because people become more and more reliant on care and gradually lose their independence and mobility. In the case of dementia, remedial measures could be provided by assistive technology to support independent living at home for as long as possible. Current assistance systems are often limited to actively raising an alert (i.e., electronic panic buttons) or location tracking. Due to this small range of functions these systems are poorly accepted by the target group. Thus, this paper reports on a selection process for a spatial data collection device allowing the development of a new so-called mobility safeguarding assistance system for people with dementia which combines features of different systems. In particular, the wearability as an everyday object is a key issue when it comes to identifying an adequate gadget for elderly people. The proposed methodology considers user requirements as well as technical requirements when it comes to finding a suitable device. Based on these requirements, several different devices were reviewed and tested in order to find most suitable potential device as part of the selection process. The device selected shows that the proposed process on how to choose the right device performed well.
Available online: http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7080/2/2/96/htm
