Tools to Support Dementia Sufferers

DTLab Challenge with Alzheimer Society Munich

Problem

Dementia can have many causes. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause, accounting for about two-thirds. In this disease, nerve cells gradually perish in certain areas of the brain. It was named after the neurologist Alois Alzheimer, who first described it in 1906.

The incidence of dementia increases with age: in the 70-74 age group, about 3.5% are affected; in the 85-89 age group, it is already over 26%. Currently, about 1.7 million people in Germany suffer from dementia. Due to population development, the number of old people will increase in the coming years. Forecasts for the year 2050 speak of 3 million cases of the disease. This corresponds to an increase of 40,000 new cases per year and more than 100 per day.

The Alzheimer Society Munich e.V. accompanies both people with dementia and their relatives. In addition, it informs social institutions and commercial enterprises about the topic of dementia with the help of lectures. Volunteers can complete dementia helper training courses there and are then deployed in group care or home support.

In general, people with dementia but other older people too like to stay independently in their own homes for as long as possible. Often the spouse and the family build an important support team. But what about people who live alone or whose family is not available? In such situations, technical aids can provide support by assisting them with everyday activities.

Approach

As part of a lecture on software engineering, students of the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics at HM were given the task of designing speech assistants for people with dementia and their relatives. In collaboration with Alzheimer-Gesellschaft München e.V. and with support from Amazon Web Services (AWS), they used a structured innovation process to develop seven ideas for apps that could support people affected by Alzheimer's disease. These ideas were developed into working prototypes over the course of the semester. Finally, the prototypes were presented to the German Alzheimer's Association.

Innovation in action

Next Steps

Interested students have the opportunity to further develop their voice assistants. In addition, the project will be taken on by the German Alzheimer society, which has a significantly wider reach. It will be developed over a period of some 10 years in order to support future technology savvy Alzheimer patients.

Supporting Documents

Supplementary documents and the source code of the individual teams are published on GitHub:

Adjuvant:

MyMemo:

Rememories:

Ringabell:

Date helper:

Vergissmeinnicht (Forget-me-not):

RemindMe:

Department: Computer Science and Mathematics

Lecturer: Prof. Johannes Ebke

Challenge giver: Alzheimer Society Munich e.V.

Date: 06.04.2021