UK facility explores how smart home tech can support people with dementia

A multi-million-pound research facility to explore how technology can support people living with dementia to live safely and independently in their homes has opened in the UK.

The UK DRI Care Research and Technology Centre is based at Imperial College London and opened at the end of May 2022. It brings together scientists from a range of backgrounds, including medicine, engineering, computer science and synthetic biology to develop smart technologies – from artificial intelligence to sleep monitoring – to enable people affected by dementia to live in their own homes for as long as possible.

To reach and help as many people as possible, the research and clinical team at the centre aims to make their technology low-cost and accessible, using products such as Amazon’s Alexa to deliver support.

The technology is brought together on a specially designed intelligent digital platform called Minder. This links information and uses machine learning to identify health risks and social care needs. This platform and new care approaches are currently being evaluated by around 80 people with dementia or mild cognitive impairment and their carers.

[Via UK Dementia Research Institute]

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