Norman Alm

Using a touch screen computer to support relationships between people with dementia and caregivers

Progressive and irreversible cognitive impairments affect the ability of people with dementia to communicate and interact with caregivers. This places a burden on caregivers to initiate and manage interactions to the extent that they may avoid all but essential communication. CIRCA is an interactive, multimedia touch screen system that contains a wide range of stimuli to prompt reminiscing. The intention is that people with dementia and caregivers will explore CIRCA together, using the recollections sparked by the media as the basis for conversations. This paper reports an evaluation of the utility of CIRCA looking particularly at whether CIRCA can meet the needs of both people with dementia and caregivers to engage in mutually satisfying interactions. The findings confirm that people with dementia can use the touch screen system and that the contents prompt them to reminisce. The system also supports caregivers to interact with people with dementia as more equal participants in the conversation. The results suggest that interacting with the touch screen system is engaging and enjoyable for people with dementia and caregivers alike and provides a supportive interaction environment that positively benefits their relationships.

A cognitive prosthesis and communication support for people with dementia

Abstract Computers may have the potential to augment human cognitive processes in ways that could be beneficial for people with dementia. This possibility is being investigated by a multidisciplinary team. Previous work on improving the performance of augmentative communication systems for non-speaking people has shown the value of conversation modelling and prompting in this setting. The impairment of short-term memory with dementia causes serious difficulties in communication. A conversation support and prompting system is being developed based on an interactive multimedia reminiscence presentation. Reminiscence has been chosen as a basis for the conversations because long-term memories can remain relatively intact with dementia, even where short-term memory is ineffective. Initial trials of the system involving people with dementia and their carers have shown that such a system can maintain the interest and active participation of a person with dementia, and increase carers’ enjoyment of the interaction. Further work will focus on directing the impact of multimedia towards increasing the quantity and quality of the communication taking place.

A Communication Support System for Older People with Dementia

CIRCA lets those with short-term memory loss draw on reminiscences to converse with relatives and caregivers. The system, which software engineers, psychologists,and designers developed with caregiver input, features a touch screen that displays photos, music, video, text, and other materials to help those with dementia access long-term memory. This paper presents a communication support system for older people with dementia.

An interactive tool to promote musical creativity in people with dementia

Dementia is a growing problem that affects the lives of those diagnosed and caregivers, with symptoms having an effect on memory, communication, the ability to learn new skills and problems with behaviour, such as aggression, agitation and depression. Participation in activities can improve quality of life for people with dementia, reducing behavioural problems and aiding relaxation. Research has established that people with dementia can be both artistically and musically creative, and have an appreciation of music even in the latter stages of the disease. The symptoms of the disease, however, mean that supporting music making activities with this group of people is challenging. This paper describes a prototype system designed to enable people with dementia to create music, using a touch screen interface to control a system which utilises chords to create pleasant-sounding music regardless of any prior musical knowledge. Results of usability studies suggest the system is easy to use, and that pleasant-sounding music can be created with it. Participants, including people with dementia, appeared actively engaged during use of the system, many reporting they enjoyed the experience. Future testing will establish the degree to which people with dementia could be musically creative using such a system.

Whole Utterance Approaches in AAC

Increased communication rate has long been a goal of both individuals who use AAC and device manufacturers. There is evidence that utterance-based approaches have the potential to deliver faster rates without loss of coherence. An overview of the historical development of devices that embody such approaches is set out here. This account focuses on the theoretical origins of utterance-based devices (UBDs) and the range of approaches that these have produced. Next, the issue of a causal relationship between conversational rate and positive attributions is addressed. Three recent studies supporting a causal relationship are described, followed by an account of a direct comparison between a UBD and a word construction system in office environments that involved a mix of transactional communication and social chat. Conversational rate and perceived communicative competence were both higher when the UBD was used. Finally, some issues for the future development of UBDs are discussed.

A script-based AAC system for transactional interaction

Non-speaking people often rely on AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) devices to assist them to communicate. These AAC devices are slow to operate, however, and as a result conversations can be very difficult and frequently break down. This is especially the case when the conversation partner is unfamiliar with this method of communication, and is a big obstacle to many people when they wish to conduct simple everyday transactions. A way of improving the performance of AAC devices by using scripts is discussed. A prototype system to test this idea was constructed, and a preliminary experiment performed with promising results. A practical AAC device which incorporates scripts was then developed, and is described.

E-mail interfaces for older people

The work introduced here concerns the user interface requirements of older users of e-mail. The main goal is to understand better the e-mail needs of older people, and to form a foundation for further developments in simplified and rationalised e-mail interfaces. The approach involved working closely with older computer users to establish their essential requirements, attempting thus to reduce complication and excess functionality in the interface, with the intention that users should find the system easy to learn and use. Requirements were established through interviews and consultation, and once the necessary functionality was identified, prototype interfaces were developed from which older volunteers selected preferred forms. A simulated e-mail system was then built around these preferred forms. Trials with older participants indicated that the design was popular, and gave insights and outcomes, which helped form the agenda for a major project on e-mail for older people

Modelling conversational pragmatics in communication aids

Non-speaking users of communication aids have a range of pragmatic conversational goals. These may be classified broadly as transactional or interactional and in terms of their immediacy or distance. A phrase-creation approach to the design of assistive devices may be well suited to the achievement of some transactional goals. However, assistive devices based on the selection of pre-stored phrases may be particularly useful for achieving short-term interactional goals, for which speed of responding is crucially important. Designers of communication aids have begun to model pragmatic aspects of natural conversation in an attempt to help users to achieve their interactional goals in particular. Some approaches to conversational modelling are discussed in order to indicate how research on the pragmatics of natural conversation might help in efforts to further enhance the effectiveness of assistive devices.

The effects of simulating human conversational style in a computer-based interview

Abstract A computer interview involves a program asking questions of the user, who responds by providing answers directly to the computer. Using a computer interview has been shown to be an effective method of eliciting information, and particularly personal information which many people find difficult to discuss face to face. While the simulation of some of the characteristics of human–human communication seems to enhance the dialogue, it appears to be the absence of others, such as being non-judgmental, unshockable, completely consistent, and unendingly patient, that gives computer interviewing its particular effectiveness. The work reported in this paper investigated the effect of simulating in a computer interview two techniques which good human interviewers use: empathy and grouping questions. Thirty nine interviewees answered 40 questions on a computer, in combinations of human - like or computer - like question styles, and presented in either a logical or a random order. They found the use of the human interviewer technique in the wording of questions made the computer interviews more interesting and enjoyable, than when blunt, direct questioning was used, and they answered honestly more often to the human - like style. This investigation has shown that a computer interview can be made more effective by simulating the human interviewer technique of empathising with interviewees and softening those questions which are of a sensitive nature. It seems therefore that it is the combination of the right non-human characteristics with the right human characteristics that can produce a successful computer interview. The question for further research is which are the right characteristics in each case, given the purpose of the interview.

Computer-Aided Conversation: A Prototype System for Nonspeaking People with Physical Disabilities.

This article describes the development, use, and initial evaluation of a prototype computer system to enable nonspeaking persons with severe disabilities to engage in conversation on broad topics. The conversational aid produced (via a voice synthesizer) speech acts that were selected from a prestored menu, which was constructed by the user. Features of the system included facilities for switching the conversational perspective between the speaker and listener (i.e., “your experiences and views” vs. “my experiences and views”), providing a range of comments on what the other speaker had said, effecting repair when there was a conversational breakdown, and following predicted sequences of speech acts. The initial trials of the system produced dialogues that proceeded in a natural way and achieved encouraging conversational rates.