Jake Terranova
Stefan Howansky
Dr. Jean F. Coppola
Seidenberg School of CSIS
Pace University
INTRODUCTION
Study focused on creation of
mobile applications for elderly
PURPOSE: Increase quality of life
of patients suffering from cognitive
disabilities
QUALITY OF LIFE
Researchers at the University of
Toronto’s Quality of Life Research
Unit define quality of life as:
“The degree to which a person
enjoys the important possibilities
of his or her life”
"Quality of Life: How Good is Life for You?". University of Toronto Quality of Life Research Unit.
Retrieved October 14, 2009.
DEMENTIA
An umbrella term for a set of symptoms
including:
Memory Loss
Difficulty with communication and language
Inability to focus
Impaired reasoning and judgment
Poor visual perception
"What Is Dementia?" Dementia – Signs, Symptoms, Causes, Tests, Treatment, Care.
ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
A very specific form of Dementia
Symptoms include:
Impaired thought
Impaired Speech
Confusion
Loss of motivation
Mood swings that often involve depression
"What Is Dementia?" Dementia – Signs, Symptoms, Causes, Tests, Treatment, Care.
MOBILE APPLICATIONS
FOR THE ELDERLY
Many elderly suffer from disease
such as Alzheimer’s and dementia
and many developers conclude that
the key unmet needs still remain:
To help patients remember
Maintain social contact
Help perform daily activities
Enhance their feelings of safety
MOBILE APPLICATIONS
FOR THE ELDERLY
Problems of the Elderly can be
categorized coarsely into 4
categories
Cognition (Attention, Memory)
Motivation (Attitudes, Beliefs)
Physical (Movement, Balance)
Perception
COGNITION
Cognitive performance slows down with
age
Lowering the complexity of
applications is vital
Greatly aids design and development
of mobile applications
Elderly users navigate just as well as
younger people with low complexity
HYPOTHESIS
Those who suffer from cognitive
disabilities may be able to retain their
cognitive stability through the use of
specialized mobile applications.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Elderly patients (65+ years)
Those with cognitive disabilities
Dementia, Alzheimers
Caretakers
IMPORTANCE
Patients suffering from these cognitive
disabilities live difficult daily lives
Testing of applications such as Pictural allows
field to be explored further
Patients' daily lives can be made easier
through the use of these specialized
applications
METHODS & MATERIALS
Creation of specialized mobile application Pictural
targeted for elderly and cognitively impaired
Will be tested on a group of elderly patients suffering
from Alzheimers and / or dementia
Patients are asked to identify people or things in the
app
Patient scores are tracked for a period of time
This will show improvement or declination of
symptoms
METHODS & MATERIALS
Pictural is intended to be used by
caretakers as well
Application must appeal to them just as
well as it appeals to patients
Should be simple, easy to understand /
troubleshoot
USABILITY
Requires large text, large buttons
GUI must be simple and easy to use
'3 clicks or less' methodology
Any part of the app can be accessed with
3 or fewer interactions
Minimal amount of lag
Multi-language support (W.I.P)
FEATURES
(Pictured Right)
Main menu of the
application, all main
features accessible
(Pictured Left)
Boards menu, each board
category is listed
Boards can be selected,
added, or removed here
FEATURES
(Pictured Right)
Generic board titled ‘family’
Couple of pictures, several
blank
(Pictured Left)
More information about
picture
Editable text, recordable
memo
FEATURES
(Pictured Right)
A sample of the game mode
Random picture, random item
name from boards
Simple, easy layout
(Pictured Left)
A sample graph of data
Each node displays data per
day / cumulative
Can track improvement or
decline over time
FEATURES
(Pictured Right)
The User menu, users can
be selected, added or
removed here
(Pictured Left)
Settings menu, color
schemes can be changed,
Facebook access
COMPETITORS
iOS App Store
MindMate
Games
Nutritional Advice
Scheduler
BrainyApp
Preventative app
Progress tracking
COMPETITORS
Google Play Store
Memory Trainer
Several mental games
Progress tracking
Fit Bit Trainer
Several memory games
Fits specific workouts
Game reminders and reports
Advice on user's over all
health
CODE ANALYSIS
Pictural consists of several 'Activities' and many
'Fragments' to fill these activities
Each Activity is a main segment (e.g. main menu,
board menu, user menu)
Each Fragment is a portion within those activities
(e.g. each board, board setup, info, games, graphs)
Layouts for each activity and fragment are all stored in
XML files
Layouts can be interacted with dynamically in some
cases, primarily for the game and board portions
CODE ANALYSIS
Picture processing is done in a multi-threaded
fashion
When work is being done, the code must stop on
that thread
Results in visual lag and delays
Through multi-threading, this work can be done
on background threads
Results in main GUI thread being left alone and
can continue displaying with no hindrance
FUTURE WORK
Test in adult care centers
Record feedback from patients and caretakers
Continue bug hunting and fixing
Expand further onto social media
Multi-language support
User-created question support
Add image caching
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
Two possible main outcomes
The application shows it can improve
or maintain cognitive stability in the
patients
It does not seem to improve or
maintain any sense of stability in the
patients
Thank you! Questions?
Jake Terranova jt14042p@pace.edu
Stefan Howansky sh64646p@pace.edu
Dr. Jean F. Coppola jcoppola@pace.edu
Seidenberg School of Computer Science
& Information Systems
Pace University