reminiscence-therapy

• Humans are outliving the evolutionary lifespand of their brains. Currently, 1 in 10 adults in the U.S. over 65 have age related dementia, an umbrella term for cognitive decline. Mild cases vary from forgetting how to do familiar tasks to a "flattening" of personality, and impair day-to-day life. Generally speaking, dementia has four stages -- very mild, mild, moderate and severe. the hope is to catch early patterns of medically relevant behaviors and responsd with warm audio/visual reminders from friends and family.
• At the moment, the system and camera is only able to see things within a slice of space. This restriction is a deliberate one. While widening the camera's field of view would increase its utility, giving it tunnel vision means the system can be trained to respond to information in useful ways. Case in point, our prototype computer vision application recognizes kitchen tools and ingredients laid out on a prep surface for a chosen recipe and checks if everthing is ready to cook the dish.
• I believe there is a huge shortage of trained professionals who feel comfortable recognizing dementia, so developing and validating technology for such services could help.