Augmented reality photo album for people with dementia

This thesis aims to provide insight on and explore how Augmented Reality can engage people with dementia to participate in stimulating activities. The use of Augmented Reality is a fairly new domain, especially compared to Virtual Reality. Inspired by the life story book, Reminiscence Therapy and Multi-Sensory Stimulation treatments, an Augmented Reality photo album prototype has been developed with the aid of dementia experts and extensive iterative design methods. The Augmented Reality photo album is a physical book with an accompanying Android application to see the Augmented Reality content. The prototype is meant as a facilitator for communication between a person with dementia and their caregiver, family member or friend. The prototype aims to evoke more details and elements of a memory and contribute to additional discussion material. Low fidelity prototypes have been tested with experts in the field of dementia; a high fidelity prototype has been tested and evaluated with proxy testers: i) healthy elderly (65+) people and ii) people who are familiar with a person with dementia. The prototype has shown positive results regarding the use of Augmented Reality as a facilitator for communication for people with dementia