The Motivator – Dayplanning Despite Demetia
DTLab Challenge with the Alzheimer Society Munich
Overview
The Alzheimer Gesellschaft München is an institution for self-help and representation of interests of people with dementia, their relatives and caregivers from their social environment. The joint commitment of relatives, volunteers and representatives of various professional groups supports domestic systems for people with dementia, including outpatient, day-care and inpatient services. Through the co-creation network M:UniverCity the cooperation with the DTLab was established.
On a socio-political level, the Alzheimer Society works for more understanding and helpfulness among the general public and thus contributes to increasing acceptance and integration of people with dementia.
It also applies for people with dementia that technical aids and devices equipped with artificial intelligence, e.g. smartphones and speech recognition systems such as "Alexa", are increasingly finding their ways into their everyday lives. It is therefore important for them to be involved in the development of technology. Only then will devices emerge that will actually benefit them.
Problem
The students of the course "Software Engineering I" asked themselves the following two core questions, which built the basis for their ideas:
- Which technical solutions can help people with dementia and/or relatives and professionals?
- Besides risks, does digitalisation also have the potential to support the everyday life of people with dementia, especially in the early stages, so that they can lead a self-determined life for longer?
The potential of the voice-controlled assistance system "Alexa" in the environment of people with dementia was then investigated using prototypical applications.
Approach
With the support of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the students went through the innovation process "Working Backwards". Part of the process was an interview with a man affected by dementia, who answered important questions about his life and how he dealt with the disease. The students then entered the information they received into so-called empathy maps, which were intended to show the influence of the disease on those affected and their families.
Among other things, the interview made it clear that patients often have problems with loneliness and a lack of motivation in everyday life. Relatives who care for them have to work or have other obligations during the day and the affected persons lose the ability to plan their day and their own tasks independently and to motivate themselves to carry them out.
To find concrete solutions to this problem in the form of Alexa applications, the students used the "Crazy-Eight-Ideation"-method. The best idea of the team dealing with this task was then elaborated in more detail with the help of a fictitious newspaper article ("Press Release") and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). The solution developed for this problem relies on the voice assistant's ability to actively approach the person concerned and to make suggestions for concrete activities as well as to guide him/her in this process. In the prototype phase the prototype was then documented and implemented according to Scrum.
Prototype
The prototype can be found on Amazon.de and is currently in the beta testing phase. As soon as the application is released, it can be activated and tested via the "Skills" section of the website.
Next steps
The prototype, together with solutions from other teams working on similar problems, was discussed at the board meeting of the Alzheimer Society in February 2020. The Alzheimer Society is now trying to apply for financial support to further develop one of the applications created.
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Gudrun Socher
Date: 16.01.2020
Documents
A selection of the documents created by the students of the team "Motivator" can be found here:
Overview
The Alzheimer Gesellschaft München is an institution for self-help and representation of interests of people with dementia, their relatives and caregivers from their social environment. The joint commitment of relatives, volunteers and representatives of various professional groups supports domestic systems for people with dementia, including outpatient, day-care and inpatient services. Through the co-creation network M:UniverCity the cooperation with the DTLab was established.
On a socio-political level, the Alzheimer Society works for more understanding and helpfulness among the general public and thus contributes to increasing acceptance and integration of people with dementia.
It also applies for people with dementia that technical aids and devices equipped with artificial intelligence, e.g. smartphones and speech recognition systems such as "Alexa", are increasingly finding their ways into their everyday lives. It is therefore important for them to be involved in the development of technology. Only then will devices emerge that will actually benefit them.
Problem
The students of the course "Software Engineering I" asked themselves the following two core questions, which built the basis for their ideas:
- Which technical solutions can help people with dementia and/or relatives and professionals?
- Besides risks, does digitalisation also have the potential to support the everyday life of people with dementia, especially in the early stages, so that they can lead a self-determined life for longer?
The potential of the voice-controlled assistance system "Alexa" in the environment of people with dementia was then investigated using prototypical applications.
Approach
With the support of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the students went through the innovation process "Working Backwards". Part of the process was an interview with a man affected by dementia, who answered important questions about his life and how he dealt with the disease. The students then entered the information they received into so-called empathy maps, which were intended to show the influence of the disease on those affected and their families.
Among other things, the interview made it clear that patients often have problems with loneliness and a lack of motivation in everyday life. Relatives who care for them have to work or have other obligations during the day and the affected persons lose the ability to plan their day and their own tasks independently and to motivate themselves to carry them out.
To find concrete solutions to this problem in the form of Alexa applications, the students used the "Crazy-Eight-Ideation"-method. The best idea of the team dealing with this task was then elaborated in more detail with the help of a fictitious newspaper article ("Press Release") and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). The solution developed for this problem relies on the voice assistant's ability to actively approach the person concerned and to make suggestions for concrete activities as well as to guide him/her in this process. In the prototype phase the prototype was then documented and implemented according to Scrum.
Prototype
The prototype can be found on Amazon.de and is currently in the beta testing phase. As soon as the application is released, it can be activated and tested via the "Skills" section of the website.
Next steps
The prototype, together with solutions from other teams working on similar problems, was discussed at the board meeting of the Alzheimer Society in February 2020. The Alzheimer Society is now trying to apply for financial support to further develop one of the applications created.
Documents
A selection of the documents created by the students of the team "Motivator" can be found here: