The evolution from Maavis project to AlwaysInMind services for people living with dementia

1. Brian, son of Maavis,
is Always In Mind
T4I2017, 15 Sep 2017
Steve Lee
steve@opendirective.com
@SteveALee

2. Double Wammy for Elders
• Many struggle with using digital tech
• Low digital literacy
• Cognitive disabilities
• Current elders – both!

3. What would help?
• “Easy” access or “Stepping Stones”
• Gain confidence and digital skills
• Without going near a ‘Computer’
• Support declining abilities

4. Broad Requirements?
• Several examples at AAATE2017
• Touch
• Uncluttered
• Friendly
• Safe
• Accessible
• Adjustable

5. Activities
• Reminiscence
• Sharing experiences
• Communicating
• Having Fun
• Reminders and prompts
• Ensuring safety and security
• Checking and maintaining health

6. Maavis
• A while back
• RATS (now Catch) Peter Cudd EU funded
• Research use of tech by elders
• In residential environment
• Touch and easy screens
– Monitors were v expensive
– Now ubiquitous cheap consumer tech

7. Cheap!?

8. Features
• Photos
• Videos
• Music
• Information – web pages
• Programs
• Video calls
• Email / Chat
• Realtime messaging - Chat

9. Open Source
• Regional Development Funding
• Required zero cost availability
• Possibility of collaboration

10. Screens

11. Outcome
• Success in trails
• Additional Interest
– Home providers
– Bolton College
• Follow-on research
• Still some interest now!

12. A fan

13. But…
• People want product / service
• Maavis was Framework
– Have to configure it before is useful
• Technology not so well known
– Firefox internals

14. Brian
• Son of Maavis
• Builds on many of Maavis concepts
• Takes advantage of advances in tech
• Activity on Standards – eg WCAG
• For people with early dementia and relatives

15. Funding
• Open Source Project
• Support collaborative dev of best practices
• EU Funded Prosperity4All FP7 project
• Stepping Stones components
• Assistance On Demand

16. New Features
• Web and Cloud Native
– Can be mobile / desktop app
• Easy access to complex services
• Supporter uses familiar services
– Google Photos, GMail, Facebook
• User provided with more suitable access

17. 17
SteppingStones
for low cognitive and low digital literacy

18. 18
SteppingStones
for low cognitive and low digital literacy

19. 19
SteppingStones
for low cognitive and low digital literacy

20. But…
• People want product / service
• Brian is an open source project
• Need to be a techy to install and configure

21. Always in Mind?
• A commercial service
• alwaysinmind.com
• Support
• SLA

22. Business
• Reasonable cost but self sustaining
• Subscription
• Free to earlier adopters
• Beta in a few months

23. Questions?
steve@opendirective.com