A Virtual Environment Gesture Interaction System For People With Dementia

As dementia will most likely become an impactful challenge for our future society, it is imperative to maintain the well-being of the diverse group of people with dementia (PwD). Thus, appropriate interventions that effectively trigger identity-stabilizing memories, and at the same time encourage sensorimotor activities, have to be designed and implemented. To that end, we present a novel natural user interface (NUI) system combined with a reminiscence-provoking virtual 3D environment (VE). With it, PwD can delve into memories while interacting with the VE over dementia-fitted gestures. The results of the preliminary evaluations are promising, as they show that most PwD get immersed and cheerfully engage in gesture interactions after a short settling-in period.