Cristina Buiza

Elderly users in ambient intelligence: does an avatar improve the interaction?

In order to examine the effect of an avatar in natural interaction with elderly users in ambient intelligent environments, we performed an empirical study with elderly people (normal aging, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimers patients) not only on subjective but also on objective measures. The data supports the following: 1) The subjects followed some instructions much better when interacting with the avatar. 2) The presence of the avatar has neither any positive nor negative effect on the recall of elderly people and it has a positive effect only on the subjective measures. 3) We found that elderly people both with and without cognitive impairment are capable of recognizing emotions in the facial expressions of the avatar and 4) they found the experience of having an emotional avatar in the interface a pleasant one. Thus, we conclude that virtual characters could improve the interaction between elderly people and machines, but this would depend greatly on the request task.

HERMES: Pervasive Computing and Cognitive Training for Ageing Well

HERMES aims at alleviating the elderly decline in both declarative and prospective memory, based on a set of ambient daily support and cognitive training applications. Its applications comprise memory aids and cognitive training games, both of which are presented in the paper. The paper introduces also the motivation of the HERMES project and applications. In addition it provides an overview of technical aspects in the areas of the project implementation in the areas of pervasive computing, as well as surface computing towards the utmost natural interactivity of seniors with computing devices.

Genes related to iron metabolism and susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease in Basque population.

Alzheimers disease (AD) is the most common dementing disorder and presents with a progressive and irreversible cognitive decline of gradual onset. To date, several reports have involved iron in AD physiopathology. In this study, we have analysed TFC2 variant and HFE mutations (H63D and C282Y) in 211 AD patients and 167 controls recruited from an area of the Basque Country. Furthermore, we have studied APOE genotype as it is a well-known risk factor for AD. APOE epsilon 4 allele was associated with an increased risk of AD and an earlier age at onset, whereas no association was found between TFC2 or HFE C282Y mutation and disease susceptibility. The frequency of H63D mutation was higher in control population (29.9%) than in AD patients (18%), suggesting a protective role of this allele on AD either due to the presence of the mutation itself or through the effect of other related genes in the ancestral haplotype in which it is included.

Natural Interaction between Avatars and Persons with Alzheimer's Disease

In this paper a natural human computer interaction paradigm is proposed for persons with cognitive impairments such as Alzheimers Disease. The paradigm consists of using a realistic virtual character, rendered on a common television set, to play the role of a virtual personal assistant that shows reminders, notifications and performs short dialogues with the user. In this paradigm, the television remote control is used as a return channel to capture the users responses. To test this concept, a functional prototype was built and then validated by a group of 21 persons with Alzheimers Disease ranging from mild to moderate. For this validation two simple dialogues were developed that consisted of simple Yes/No type questions. The test results showed that with both dialogues all users engaged naturally with the avatar. All of the users understood the information conveyed by the avatar and answered successfully by means of the TV remote control.

Adaptación y validación de la versión española de la escala de evaluación de dolor en personas con demencia avanzada: PAINAD-Sp

INTRODUCTION Pain in elderly people is considered a major concern in nursing home facilities affecting between 49% and 83% of the residents. Progression of Alzheimers Disease causes more communication difficulties in patients with advanced dementia and therefore more problems to understand even the most simple pain evaluation scales. Identification and implementation of appropriate pain management strategies depends on an adequate pain assessment. MATERIAL AND METHODS The main objective of the study was to validate the Spanish version of the PAINAD Scale (PAINAD-Sp) and to assess its applicability in Spanish Geriatric Nursing Homes. The 20 patients diagnosed with severe dementia from a Geriatric Centre in Spain were observed by five observers with different professional profiles for 5 minutes to each participant, and PAINAD-Sp Scale was administered simultaneously to a Visual Analogical Scale-VAS. Three different observational conditions were established: resting condition, during presumably pleasant activity and during presumable painful activity. RESULTS Cronbachs alpha ranged between 0.467 and 0.827 (average 0.692), and rose if Breathing item was deleted. Inter-rater reliability ranged between 0.587 and 0.956. Correlation between PAINAD-Sp Scale total measures and VAS was statistically significant (P<.05) in all measures and ranged from 0.517 to 0.868. CONCLUSIONS Findings in the study showed that the scale is useful to measure pain in non communicative patients suffering from dementia. The scale maintains good levels of reliability for different healthcare professionals even when they have little training.

Erratum to: Role of cognitive and functional performance in the interactions between elderly people with cognitive decline and an avatar on TV

The complexity of new information technologies (IT) may limit the access of elderly people to the information society, exacerbating what is known as “the digital divide,” as they appear to be too challenging for elderly citizens regardless of the integrity of their cognitive status. This study is an attempt to clarify how some cognitive functions (such as attention or verbal memory) may determine the interaction of cognitively impaired elderly people with technology. Twenty participants ranging from mild cognitive impairment to moderate Alzheimer’s disease were assessed by means of a neuropsychological and functional battery and were asked to follow simple commands from an avatar appearing on a TV by means of a remote control, such as asking the participant to confirm their presence or to respond Yes/No to a proposal to see a TV program. The number of correct answers and command repetitions required for the user to respond were registered. The results show that participants with a better cognitive and functional state in specific tests show a significantly better performance in the TV task. The derived conclusion is that neuropsychological assessment may be used as a useful complementary tool for assistive technology developers in the adaptation of IT to the elderly with different cognitive and functional profiles. Further studies with larger samples are required to determine to what extent cognitive functions can actually predict older users’ interaction with technology.

Efectos del Modelo de Atención Centrado en la Persona en la calidad de vida de personas con deterioro cognitivo de centros gerontológicos

INTRODUCTION The Model of Person Centered Care has attracted increasing interest for use in gerontology centers. Therefore, the contributions about its impact are scarce in our context. The objective of this paper is to establish the impact that the interventions associated with the Model of Person Centered Care in the «Etxean Ondo» Project have on the quality of life of residents with cognitive impairment. MATERIAL AND METHODS One hundred and ninetten residents with cognitive impairment were selected: 59 in the control group and 60 in the experimental group. Subjects in each group were sorted by cognitive impairment: mild or severe. Changes were implemented in the physical and organizational environments for the promotion of autonomy and wellbeing. Quality of life was assessed before and 6 months after intervention using the Fumat Scales (mild cognitive impairment) and Qualid (severe cognitive impairment). The t-Student test was used for comparison of means. RESULTS In intergroup comparisons, significant differences in the Fumat Scale for the control group with mild cognitive impairment were initially identified. These differences were not recorded in the post assessment. The experimental group with severe cognitive impairment was significantly improved in the Qualid Scale post assessment. In intragroup comparisons, significant improvements were evident in the quality of life of experimental subjects, both with severe cognitive impairment (Qualid) and mild (Fumat). CONCLUSIONS The findings support the effectiveness of the interventions and identify methodological and conceptual issues that have been considered to analyze the Model of Person Centered Care efects.

Preferences of Healthcare Staff in the Way of Interacting with Robots Depending on Their Prior Knowledge of ICTs: Findings from Iward Project

Research about applicability of robots in the healthcare sector is constantly increasing. IWARD is a EU 6th framework project to directly support staff in hospitals by a self-organizing swarm system that will provide an efficient way to order specific tasks without worrying about the details of their execution. The IWARD swarm will be able to perform delivery, guidance, cleaning, monitoring and surveillance tasks. In order to develop a swarm that works for hospital staff, User Centered Design (UCD) was chosen, as this approach provides the developers with a better way to identify with end users when trying to develop a design for them. Keeping this perspective in mind, the following paper describes the process and methods of gathering information about heath care staff attitudes and expertise towards technology and robots, and how these features may facilitate or interfere with the subsequent inclusion of IWARD technology in hospital environments.

Evaluación cognitiva global en personas vascoparlantes con demencia en estadios avanzados. Validación al euskera de la escala Severe Mini Mental State Examination (SMMSE-eus)

INTRODUCTION Adaptation and validation to the Basque language of tests to assess advanced cognitive impairment is a not covered need for Basque-speaking people. The present work shows the validation of the Basque version of the Severe Mini Mental State Examination (SMMSE). MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 109 people with advanced dementia (MEC<15) took part in the validation study, and were classified as GDS 5-7 on the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). All participants were Spanish-Basque bilingual. RESULTS It was shown that SMMSE-eus has a high internal consistency (alpha=0.92), a good test-retest reliability (r=0.88; P<.01), and a high inter-rater reliability (CCI=0.99; P<.00) for the overall score, as well as for each item. CONCLUSIONS Both the high internal consistency and inter-rater reliability, and to a lesser extent, test-retest reliability, made the SMMSE-eus a valid test for the brief assessment of cognitive status in people with advanced dementia in Basque-speaking people. For this reason, the SMMSE-eus is a usable and reliable alternative for assessing Basque-speaking people in their mother-tongue, or preferred language.

Assessing the Usefulness and Acceptance of HERMES MyFuture System in Two European Countries

In this paper, the results of the first user trials of the HERMES system “Cognitive Care and Guidance for Active Aging”, a research project co-funded by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Program (FP7) are presented. In particular it describes how elderly users in Austria and Spain tested HERMES MyFuture, which aims to address prospective memory problems of elderly people by means of setting different kinds of appointments (time based, location based). In general, the system is perceived as useful and easy to use.