Augmented Reality System for Aiding Mild Alzheimer Patients and Caregivers

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) has become ever more prominent within the area of healthcare. Studies show that it is the most common cause of dementia in older adults. In addition, a large percentage of patients and their caregivers still face enormous challenges concerning treatment and the performing of everyday tasks. Forgetfulness and location awareness are recurrent symptoms. On the other hand, smartphones have become a more common feature of their daily lives. Therefore, this paper presents a mobile application to help individuals diagnosed in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease to identify objects and people. In addition, it can track the location of an AD individual, since they frequently become disoriented and lost. The application presented herein proposes an accessible interface, based on Augmented Reality techniques that uses speech commands for different features: time reminders for taking medicine, identification of which medicine to be taken, people recognition from photos, among others. In addition tests revealed a promising interface using voice recognition and a feasibility of locating individuals using the caregiver's mobile application.