Designing for Experiences in Blended Reality Environments for People with Dementia

Abstract

Blended Reality environments have the potential to provide scalable solutions that are affordable, adaptable and easily deployable to support people with dementia. Use of these technologies is associated with experience of presence which is an experience with technologically mediated perceptions that generates a feeling of being there and the illusion of non-mediation. Our study examines what constitutes an experience of presence for people with dementia when they interact with MRTs.An observational study with ten participants (MoCA = 18 to 23, Age= 63 to 88 years) played a game of Tangram on Osmo. Six of these participants also played Young Conker on HoloLens. The experiences of the participants in the digital space, the physical space, and their attention crossover between the two spaces were coded in Noldus Observer XT 14.1.The study found four main themes that have an impact on the experience of presence in PwD -correspondences, effortless access to physical and digital content, awareness of reality and emergence. Correspondences between physical and digital spaces require PwD to have constant information about the state and nature of physical and digital content. The transitions between physical and digital should be seamless. PwD demonstrated positive experiences with Osmo, an augmented Virtuality technology while their experience with HoloLens, augmented reality technology was negative. The factors impacting experience of presence were prominent in Osmo while they were mostly absent in HoloLens throughout the game play. The outcomes of this study have resulted in a set of recommendations and guidelines for designers to design correspondences for experience of presence. We are currently working on developing prototypes using these guidelines for evaluations with PwD.

A Mixed Reality Cognitive Orthosis to Support Older Adults in Achieving Their Daily Living Activities: Focus Group Study With Clinical Experts

“…The design of 3D graphical user interfaces and interactions is also important and should be carefully considered [63]. The literature suggests paying attention to the specific needs of older people with cognitive disorders during the design process because of their cognitive, perceptual, or physical limitations [13,[64][65][66][67][68], which is supported by the conclusions of this study. For example, it is suggested to limit cognitive overload by limiting possible options [66], and the size of icons should be large enough as small targets might be difficult to reach [68].…”

“…Regular usability testing with users should also be undertaken to maximize the usefulness of the prototype. Third, specific mixed reality ZET principles could be developed for this population by completing the already existing guidelines [ 65 ]. Fourth, coupling mixed reality headsets with both sensors to monitor the user’s health and smart environments to manage critical situations could be explored.…”