Photo Memories to Help Alzheimer Patients

Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects an estimated 5.4 million people. It is one of the most prevalent diseases in the United States and one of the leading causes of debilitation and death. One of the major side effects of Alzheimer’s is that those affected lose their ability to remember things.  Many lose their ability to remember what they just a few weeks, days, minutes or even what they are doing right now. Researchers are working on developing a technology that will help Alzheimer’s patients coup with their decrepit memory.
                The basis for this new technology is an innovative “life logging” photographic device developed by Microsoft. The device is called SenseCam and is marketed commercially as Vicon Revue. The basic idea is that this device creates a chronological picture journal of the day of an Alzheimer patient’s day that way, they can go back and review the pictures to help them remember important events and recall what happened. The innovative part of the device is that rather than recording the entire day or snapshots of the day at random, the SenseCam uses an array of sensors and some intelligent programing to only capture the events that are important. For example, it has a photoreceptor that detects changes in light that might result from walking from one room to another or leaving a building, which can be helpful for an Alzheimer’s patient to remember where they are. It also has a multi axis accelerometer to detect when the user is up and about so it can take pictures at a greater frequency. It has a inferred temperature sensor that detects the body heat when someone walks by so it can snap a picture helping patients remember who they talked and interacted with. The device is a small 6.5 by 7.0 by 1.7 cm box with a 3 megapixel camera. The pictures are stored on an 8GB solid state hard drive enabling to store days worth of pictures at once. The device also includes a number of software applications to help users edit and sort through pictures and organize them in a meaningful way that will help them remember things. Clinical trials have demonstrated that this device drastically improves the memory and recall ability of people who start to use it compared to their ability prior to using it. While this is not a cure to Alzheimer’s or memory loss, it is a solution that helps those suffering from memory loss cope. This device can be used to help people remain more independent for longer and attain higher degree of independence and day to day functionality.

Link to original article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=photographic-memory-wearable