Tag: remind

World Alzheimer’s Day – Halmstad researchers are developing solutions for dementia patients

September 21 every year is World Alzheimer’s Day. Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia among older adults. Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning – thinking, remembering, and reasoning – and behavioral abilities to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities. Halmstad University is part of a European initiative called Remind which develops technical solutions that can help patients with dementia and their relatives in everyday life.

Technical solutions can for example provide timely reminders for patients with dementia. Photo: iStock

Martin Cooney, a social robotics researcher at Halmstad University, is the local coordinator of Remind:

What is Remind?
”Remind is a four-year EU project involving staff exchanges between various partners from academia and industry in eight countries, within the area of reminding technologies for dementia and smart environments.”

What is the goal for Remind?
­”The goal is to facilitate networking, training, and knowledge transfers through staff exchanges. For example, developers can learn about the user perspectives, and vice versa.”

How can this help a patient with Alzheimer’s?
”Participating staff are involved with various development and research projects, aimed to eventually contribute to a better quality of life for patients with Alzheimer’s. Currently we have, or are soon expecting, six people from Italy, Ireland, Norway, and Colombia at Halmstad University, and we are sending out three people to Spain soon.”

Martin Cooney
Martin Cooney, social robotics researcher at Halmstad University.

Examples of researchers within Remind and their projects

  • Usman Akhtar from Kyung Hee University, Korea, intends to at Halmstad University investigate a fog architecture for transfer learning related to activity recognition in smart homes. The goal is a better ability to monitor, share data, and provide timely reminders for patients with dementia.
  • Linda Ong from I+ srl, and Giovanni Nicoli from Associazione Novilunio, Italy, are interested in solutions involving robotic technology. For example, Linda has at Halmstad University started to incorporate sentiment analysis with a medical model of dementia into an interaction with a robot, which can provide appropriate and engaging reminders.
  • Dr. Jane Walsh, Director of the mHealth Research Group at National University of Ireland, Galway, and Dr. Riitta Hellman, Chairman Of The Board at Karde AS, Norway, work with users, in terms of behaviour change and tools for users with cognitive disabilities, respectively.
  • Dr. Miguel Angel Ortiz Barrios, coming to Halmstad University from Universidad de la Costa (CUC) in Colombia, works with data analytics (specifically statistical methods) and multi-criteria decision making.
  • Dr. Martin Cooney from Halmstad University has been working with thermal cameras as a way to infer medicine intake, and designs for socially assistive therapy robots, aimed to help meet a need for care which cannot currently be met due to lack of human healthcare workers.

Text and photo: LOUISE WANDEL, Halmstad University

European initiative develops better healthcare solutions for patients with dementia

People with a dementia diagnosis often struggle with daily routines, for example remembering to take their medication. In a European initiative called Remind, organisations from nine different countries collaborate to develop technical solutions that can help patients with dementia and their relatives in everyday life.

Remind is a European project where universities and companies collaborate to generate and share knowledge about health care solutions for patients with dementia.

Ubaid Ur Rehman is a PhD student from Kyung Hee University in South Korea, one of the partner universities in the Remind project. He visited Halmstad University as a guest researcher during three months in the beginning of 2018. Ubaid Ur Rehman has developed an application that, based on data from an intelligent home and a smartphone, can determine when it is a good time to remind a patient with dementia to take his or her medication.

– The main purpose of the project Remind is to generate and share knowledge between the involved organisations ­– which are both within the industry and the academy, says Ubaid Ur Rehman.

The Remind project gives us the opportunity to share ideas, information and results with others so that we efficiently can work towards the same goal.

– Anita Sant’Anna, Assistant Professor at the School of Information Technology at Halmstad University.

Towards the same goal

Remind was initiated by Anita Sant’Anna from Halmstad University and Chris Nugent from Ulster University in Northern Ireland. Chris Nugent was until recently a visiting professor at Halmstad University, focusing on development of mobile and pervasive computing solutions to support ambient assisted living.

Anita Sant’Anna, Assistant Professor at the School of Information Technology at Halmstad University, is one of the initiators of the Remind project. Photo: JOACHIM BRINK

– A growing elderly population requires new health technology solutions and smart home environments. The Remind project gives us the opportunity to share ideas, information and results with others so that we efficiently can work towards the same goal, says Anita Sant’Anna, Assistant Professor at the School of Information Technology at Halmstad University.

Martin Cooney, social robotics researcher at Halmstad University, is the local coordinator of Remind:

– Halmstad University is contributing to the project with competence in Artificial Intelligence. I think Ubaid’s activity recognition is a very good example of this. We have also, for example, made a system to detect recently performed activities – like taking medicine –using a thermal camera.

– Aside from the research, I think the project also offers nice opportunities for networking, by sending people to different countries, and connecting academia to industry, says Martin Cooney.

About Remind

Remind has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement. The project started in 2017 and will end in 2020. Remind webpage: https://www.remind-research.com

Partners:

  • Beneficiaries
    • Ulster University (UK)
    • University of Jaén (Spain)
    • National University of Ireland Galway (Ireland)
    • Luleå University of Technology (Sweden)
    • Halmstad University (Sweden)
    • University of Florence (Italy)
    • Associazione NOVILUNIO Onlus (Italy)
    • I+ srl (Italy)
    • KARDE AS (Norway)
    • Swedish Adrenaline (Sweden)
    • The Ageing social Lab Foundation (Spain)
  • Other organisations
    • University Medical Center Groningen (Netherlands)
    • Kyung Hee University (Korea)
    • Corporación Universidad de la Costa (Colombia)
    • Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia (Colombia)

Knowledge exchange will be achieved through collaborative and hands-on activities where participants develop and/or implement something together within the following areas:

  • Signal and data analysis for healthcare
  • Context and behaviour modelling
  • User-centred reminding technologies

A final project demonstrator will be developed by the end of the project period, in June 2020.

Text: LOUISE WANDEL, Halmstad University

Film: IDA FRIDVALL and LOUISE WANDEL,  Halmstad University