Aids for people with Alzheimer's disease or other dementia I

Abstract

With the rise in numbers of dementia cases in Singapore and globally, there is a need to provide new ways in helping the dementia patients. Although most cases of dementia do not have treatments that can fully cure or stop the disease, it is possible to help the patients slow down the deterioration of the brain functions

The purpose of this project is to create a simple game application that can assist the patients by stimulating memories and other cognitive abilities. The project integrates existing games features with modern technology of mobile computing into a features-rich mobile application. Using mobile application as a game platform has great advantages, such as having high ability for customization to suit preferences of different users. Mobile application also allows modifications to be made along the way.

In this project, the author included two simple games that are suitable for the dementia patients, mainly a ball-balancing game and a pictures matching game. Each game was specially designed to assist patients in a certain way while providing entertainment to them. This report will include descriptions of the entire development process, the various concepts, algorithms and framework used will also be discussed.

Besides the functionalities that were implemented, the author was responsible for the graphical user interface and user experience of the application. The application was designed to be as elderly-friendly as possible.