Suzanne Martin

A review of the role of assistive technology for people with dementia in the hours of darkness

Assistive Technology (AT) has been utilized to support people with dementia (PwD) and their carers in the home. Such support can extend the time that PwD can remain safely at home and reduce the burden on the tertiary healthcare sector. Technology can assist people in the hours of darkness as well as during the day. The objective of this literature review is to evaluate reported healthcare technologies appropriate to night time care. This paper summarises and categorises the current evidence base. In all, 131 abstracts were returned from a database search, yielding fifty four relevant papers which were considered in detail. While night-time specific studies identified very few papers (4 papers, 7%), most of the more general AT findings could be adopted to benefit night-time assistance. Studies have used technology for prompting and reminding as loss of time and forgetfulness are major problems; for monitoring daily activities in a sensor enriched environment and utilised location aware technologies to provide information to enhance safety. Technology also supports a range of therapies to alleviate symptoms. Therapies include the delivery of music and familial pictures for reminiscing, the use of light therapy to enhance wellbeing and the provision of mental tasks to stimulate the brain and maintain activity levels.

Visualization of data for ambient assisted living services

Ambient assisted living (AAL) services that provide support for people to remain in their homes are increasingly being used in healthcare systems around the world. Typically, these ambient assisted living services provide additional information though location-awareness, presence-awareness, and context-awareness capabilities, arising from the prolific use of telecommunications devices including sensors and actuators in the home of the person receiving care. In addition there is a need to provide abstract information, in context, to local and remote stakeholders. There are many different viewing options utilizing converged networks and the resulting explosion in data and information has resulted in a new problem, as these new ambient assisted living services struggle to convey meaningful information to different groups of end users. The article discusses visualization of data from the perspective of the needs of the differing end user groups, and discusses how algorithms are required to contextualize and convey information across location and time. In order to illustrate the issues, current work on nighttime AAL services for people with dementia is described.

A qualitative study of the lived experiences of disabled post-transition students in higher education institutions in Northern Ireland

This article provides a systematic analysis of 13 in-depth interviews of disabled students from universities in Northern Ireland. Undertaken as part of the Uni4U initiative, the findings presented describe barriers experienced by students with disabilities to participation in higher education. The students provided comments concerning their current service provisions, barriers they have experienced and suggestions for improvements to the service. Examination of the findings leads us to three recommendations: first, that a network of communication should exist that encourages dialogue between all parties with an interest in the well-being of the student, with the student at the heart of these discussions and involved in all decisions; second, that attention must be paid to staff development especially with regard to mental health issues; and, finally, that in the long term, the aim of institutions should be to move away from individual ‘reasonable adjustments’ to inclusive education for all.

Monitoring and analysis of sleep pattern for people with early dementia

An altered sleep pattern is often one of the general symptoms experienced by people with dementia. The quantity and quality of sleep may be a reflection of their dementia condition and affect the quality of life for people with dementia. In this paper we present our research in using sensor based technology for a telecare service to monitor daily activities over a period of three months for one healthy elderly client and one client with early dementia using assistive technology. We analyze their sleep patterns, propose a set of measures to assess the quantity and quality of sleep, and visualize the sleep patterns for a telecare service provider and carers to support users with dementia. Results show that people with early dementia have more alternations of sleep-wake cycles than healthy elderly people, and assistive technology can provide objective and ubiquitous monitoring of sleep patterns for health care purposes.

A user centred approach for developing Brain-Computer Interfaces

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) research requires a multi-disciplinary approach. The core concept harnesses brain wave activity to enable a user to interact with devices without the need for physical activity. There are many possible benefactors of such technology, including rehabilitation, supporting disabled people in everyday activities and the gaming industry. This is a science that has been in the embryonic stage for some years and there has been a recent push to develop the technology for application outside of the laboratory environment. This paper gives details of developments within the European Union (EU) funded BRAIN project whereby the goal is to achieve an easily used BCI system for operation in a domestic environment. More importantly, as much of the BCI communitys research to date has been in the advancement of the scientific signal processing and paradigm development there has been less attention to the user aspects of the BCI system. In contrary a user-centred model of development is employed in this project.

Designing & evaluating a cognitive prosthetic for people with mild dementia

Motivation -- Develop a portable, mobile information and communication device with specific applications that meet the identified needs of people with mild dementia. Research approach -- A qualitative study with a user centred design was applied: Three iterative development cycles of one year each were performed, in which around 15 persons with mild dementia and their carers participated in each cycle of development to attune the functions and form of the cognitive prosthetic to their needs and wishes. A mixed methods approach of qualitative interviews and standardised tools were used for the evaluations that were performed by formulating research questions and assigning appropriate methods for data collection before, during and after the field tests at the end of each development cycle. Findings/Design -- The COGKNOW Day Navigator consists of a touch screen, a mobile device, sensors, a home hub and a central server. Several features such as colours and icons, can be adjusted to personal preferences, which was much appreciated by users. The functions to support people in their daily activities were overall appreciated, though there were individual differences in preferences and abilities to use them. Research limitations/Implications - It was recommended to perform an impact study within the target group for a longer period of time when the system is considered stable and to make use of a randomised controlled design in a larger study population. Originality/Value -- The research built upon previous evidence of needs of people with mild dementia and the findings are valuable in directing further research and innovation. However, it was found that this technology can be complex to implement in a manner that ensures good quality of service delivery during field tests. Take away message -- The work has shown the value of designing an analysis framework for development of assistive technology that gives a strong voice to people with dementia and their carers.

Contrasting levels of accuracy in command interaction sequences for a domestic brain-computer interface using SSVEP

Providing a usable domestic brain-computer interface (BCI) for persons with disabilities requires that the development team ensure ease of interaction for all the potential users. To do this for individuals with complex needs often requires that an approach is tailored to a specific user. However, in developing a domestic BCI it is necessary to consider the provision of an application which hides the complexity of the underlying science from the user whilst delivering acceptable levels of interaction for many. This is not an unusual circumstance in the realm of assistive technology. We present a cohesive test suite which allows the development team to assess what constitutes an acceptable level of accuracy in a four-way command interface using steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEP). It also facilitates a uniform assessment of the level of accuracy achieved by a specific user operating a BCI and provides a means of contrasting and selecting performance parameters in order to enhance user performance.

Participatory Research to Design a Novel Telehealth System to Support the Night-Time Needs of People with Dementia: NOCTURNAL

Strategies to support people living with dementia are broad in scope, proposing both pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions as part of the care pathway. Assistive technologies form part of this offering as both stand-alone devices to support particular tasks and the more complex offering of the “smart home” to underpin ambient assisted living. This paper presents a technology-based system, which expands on the smart home architecture, orientated to support people with daily living. The system, NOCTURNAL, was developed by working directly with people who had dementia, and their carers using qualitative research methods. The research focused primarily on the nighttime needs of people living with dementia in real home settings. Eight people with dementia had the final prototype system installed for a three month evaluation at home. Disturbed sleep patterns, night-time wandering were a focus of this research not only in terms of detection by commercially available technology but also exploring if automated music, light and visual personalized photographs would be soothing to participants during the hours of darkness. The NOCTURNAL platform and associated services was informed by strong user engagement of people with dementia and the service providers who care for them. NOCTURNAL emerged as a holistic service offering a personalised therapeutic aspect with interactive capabilities.

A P300 BCI for e - inclusion, cognitive rehabilitation and smart home control

We implemented an easy-to-use P300 BCI system that allows users to control a variety of applications for communication, creative expression, training of cognitive abilities and environmental control. In this paper we present an evaluation of the following four applications: a speller, two games that can be used for cognitive rehabilitation or entertainment, twitter (via web browser) and a webcam. All fourteen healthy participants had control over the BCI and reached high accuracies (>85%). The results of the evaluation informed the development of the next prototype. With a user-centered approach we aim to further improve the prototype and ultimately provide end users with a multifunctional system that can be used as assistive technology in a home environment.

Realistic Expectations with Brain Computer Interfaces

Purpose – This paper describes the research underpinning the development and evaluation of a brain computer interface (BCI) system designed to be suitable for domestic use by people with acquired brain injury in order to facilitate control of their home environment. The purpose of the research is to develop a robust and user‐friendly BCI system which was customisable in terms of user ability, preferences and functionality. Specifically the human interface was designed to provide consistent visual metaphors in usage, while applications change, for example, from environmental control to entertainment and communications.Design/methodology/approach – The research took a user centred design approach involving representative end‐users throughout the design and evaluation process. A qualitative study adopting user interviews alongside interactive workshops highlighted the issues that needed to be addressed in the development of a user interface for such a system. User validation then underpinned prototype develo...