( University graduation production )

The advent of an aging society

With the advancement of medical treatment, the age of people's survival has also increased, and due to the phenomenon of the declining birthrate of parents, the world has entered an aging society.professional medical personnel.

About dementia

Due to the advancement of medical treatment, the global population is ageing. Ageing is the main risk for dementia. According to epidemiological studies, 5% of people who over the age of 65 have dementia, and it has increased to 20% over the age of 85.

Because of the advent of an aging society, research shows that the proportion of elderly people with dementia rises as they age. We have found that in many places in their lives, it is difficult for them to take care of their own selves because of this psychological issue. If they go out, they will be lost and confused, making the family's care process more and more difficult.

The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer's disease. The typical initial symptom is memory impairment. The patient will forget what has just happened (short-term memory is poor), while the memory of a long time ago (long-term memory) is relatively unaffected at the beginning of the disease.

Dementia affects language ability, comprehension, exercise ability, short-term memory, the ability to recognize everyday items, reaction time, personality, execution ability, and problem solving ability. Even if there is no sign of mental decline, there are often delusions (present in 15-56% of Alzheimer’s patients), for example, suspecting that the mirror is another person.

The symptoms of dementia also include changes in personality or behavior. Many patients diagnosed with dementia develop intense confusion symptoms during the early stages of hospitalization. The elderly may also have symptoms of psychological change caused by other medications, surgery, infections, lack of sleep, improper diet, dehydration, change of residence, or personal crisis. This is called delirium and the symptoms are similar to psychosis or dementia.

Most people with dementia may also have symptoms of insanity. Although symptoms may be relieved by close care, improved living environment and diet; psychiatric drugs can also help stabilize mood, reduce hallucinations, or impulse control. But at present, the drugs have not been able to slow down the degeneration of the brain. Dementia patients also often exhibit symptoms of depression, and it is best to be diagnosed and treated by professional medical personnel.

potential analysis

(Take Taiwan as an example)

Proportion of people over 65 years old in Taiwan

Proportion of elderly people in Taiwan

The proportion of elderly people in Taiwan who have fallen / wounded

Elders over 65 years old (12%)
Other
Minor cognitive impairment (18.67%)
Demented population (8.09%)
Other
Personal factors (50%)
Environmental factors (40%)
Other

Reported to the police

Other
Found
Found within the organization (28%)
Found through relatives, friends or people (27.2%)
Found through the police station (18.8%)
Dead when found (19.2%)
Found by other means (6.8%)

The number of reported cases was mainly due to dementia, followed by poor mental health. The lost elderly have weak self-care ability, so it is urgent to find a job.

Daily care problems of dementia patients

Memory

get lost

forgetful

Money management

Language degradation

Text structure

Time cognition

Emotional memory disappears

Repeat action

get lost

Forget to go home

forgetful

Forgot what they did

Time perception

Forget the current time and date

Repeat action

Lost recent memory and repeat the same thing

Forget everything around them

Forget who the people around them don’t even recognize themselves

physiological

Accident handling ability

Urinary incontinence

Judgment

Perceive organ degradation

Language

Tool ability

Accident handling ability

Gradually lose the ability to deal with accidents

Decreased judgment

Often confuse things around

Peripheral nerve degeneration

Hand shaking, confusion of perceptual response

Psychology

disgust

Hallucination

Temper management

alone

Afraid

Social skills

A hallucination occurs

Suspect that there are other people around

Temper management

Blame others for moving their own things

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Although we all know the issue of demented patients is very important and worthy of concern

BUT......

Is there anyone ever worried about their families?

For families of dementia patients who currently have no way to treat them, how can they reduce their burden and worry?


All-day care for Dementia patients

Allow dementia seniors to live a safer and more comfortable life, while reducing family worries about them.

Families of dementia patients

Dementia patients

Always nervous and worried

How to share their tension and pressure

Reduce the burden on caregivers

Need to be cared for at all times

How to reassure family members

Reassure family members even when they are unaccompanied

user needs

What trade-offs may these customers make? What might their needs be?

1

Maintain the quality of life of patients

2

Reduce stress for caregivers

3

Steady patient's cognitive function

4

Maintain the maximum capacity of the patient

5

Treat patients with emotional and abnormal behavior problems

so......

My teammate Hani and I designed Baro Floor and Smart Light to prevent dementia patients from falling and immediately remind the family of dementia patients as soon as the accident happened.




Smart light

Dementia patients is a disease that affects many elderly people. Symptoms include sleep apnea, memory loss and confusion, making it especially hard for sufferers to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Smart Light combined with infrared sensing, analyzes the movement of dementia patients to get up from the bed through displacement sensing to turn on the lights, and adopts a progressive lighting mode to avoid visual confusion caused by glare.

When the dementia patient assumes a sitting position, Smart Light will detect the displacement drop caused by the lying to sitting position and turn on the light; when the dementia patient gets up and walks, Smart Light detects more A large displacement drop converts the brightness with a higher success rate and illuminates the visual field of the demented patient to reduce the chance of the dementia patient falling.

Balance to help Smart Light judged more correct.

Baro floor

Data instant gap

Turn on the inspection function

When a dementia patient falls accidentally, Baro Floor will turn on the system due to the momentary pressure drop. At this time, it will detect the area occupied by the body and its temperature through the body temperature sensor. If the station is large in area and has a temperature, it will notify the families of demented patients to go to check it immediately through the APP alarm sound to grasp the golden rescue time.

It is presented in the form of assembled floor mats to be able to choose and purchase according to the different size.

app

information architecture

Results

We Created a system that can immediately notify family members of demented patients when an accident occurs, reduce the burden on caregivers, and adopt modern technology as a link between products. Iworked closely with my teammate Hanni to plan the project roadmap and milestones.

Communicate With our target users from time to time and get feedback from them. For demented patients, the greater the pressure the higher the probability of onset. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent dementia patients from knowing that they are helping or supervising them.Urgoalie helps family members of demented patients reduce the burden of stress. Now they can sleep peacefully and Urgoalie will take care of demented patients during sleep time.

Things I Learned

Modern technology is certainly convenient, but the price is relatively uncommon. For the induction system used in the current conceptual products, if mass production and listing are to be launched in the future, what price will it have to face so that the average family can afford it. Must think about how to simplify complex professional work, but also requires a lot of cooperation and efforts of many participants.

It is also very important to not negatively impact the patient’s self-esteem, which also let me thoroughly understand how to proceed and proceed in the face of such issues in order to achieve the design goals.