Interactive Multimedia Technology: senior

May 10, 2009

"It's Never Too Late" (IN2L), Dakim BrainFitness: Interactive multimedia, touchscreens, and applications for seniors.

Touch-screen applications are making headway with seniors in the form of brain fitness games and therapeutic rehabilitation activities. It makes sense to take this to the next level, via multi-touch and gesture interaction. Here is a brief overview of a few systems that are making some headway in skilled nursing facilities, in homes, and on-line:

State-of-the-Art Technology and Hotel-Like Environment Get CareOne's Rehab Patients Home Quicker

"Seniors are empowered to connect and communicate online, to immerse themselves in rich multimedia experiences, to play, to explore, create, to revisit and document their histories. In short, to be engaged in a multitude of ways that help them remain physically and mentally active.

IN2L uses an easy touch-screen interface that allows each resident to have their own profile that they can access just by touching the screen. Touching picture-based icons on the screen gives the individual access to a wide variety of experiences, games and therapies, including simulation programs like driving, flying and biking." - Mel Fabrikant, The Paramus Post, 5/7/09

The applications can be used by speech, occupational, and physical therapists to deliver reimbursable treatment activities.

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New Brain Training System Entertains While Fighting Dementia: Dakim BrainFitness
Jill Schmidt, Reuters 1/9/09

"The turnkey hardware/software system includes a touch screen computer  appliance that requires no mouse or keyboard,
plus brain games that adjust to  different ability levels and are automatically updated every few days over the Internet to avoid boredom.
Already the #1 brain wellness program in senior living communities, the Dakim unit is now being released in a home
edition that makes brain fitness fun while also fighting mental decline."

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Related

Washington Post Article

Future-Making Serious Games Post: Personalized Serious Games for Cognitive Fitness
(Detailed information about the CogniFit online brain training system)

Mar 26, 2009

ElderGadget Blog

Via Technology-Supported Human World Interaction

Today I came across the ElderGadget Blog when I was searching for technology that might be helpful to my father, who recently spent the last few weeks in an intensive care unit.

Here are a few things I found on the blog, including what I found when I followed a link to the bindependent website:

Smart Table: A Broadband Communication System for the Elderly

ID Studiolab, Delft University of Technology, NL
"The smart system is aimed to prevent possible social isolation between elderly people and their social contacts. It consists of the Smart Table and the Smart Messenger, which provide easy and intuitive way for elderly people to benefit from the advantage of communication technology and improve the satisfaction of their social activities."

"During the design research, a working prototype is made and evaluated by a user test. The Smart Table offers people a way to use broadband communication without the need for a computer. The television will be used for video communication (web-cam) and the table as user-interface. On the table contact persons can be selected and images and video can be shared. The elderly person can capture images that will be shared instantly. The contact person can select images from his or her computer, which will be projected on the table of the elderly person". (TU Delft - Faculty Industrial Design Engineering - Master Design for Interaction - Project Interactive Technology Design - Vincent Steurs & Juin-Yi Huang)