Project Overview

Individuals living with dementia in long-term care are often under-stimulated and lack much of the physical and cognitive engagement required for a meaningful quality of life. The Centivizer system provides rewarded interactions to people with dementia..  It  has  been developed  by  specialists  in  human  factors  and  applied  psychology,  working  with  an  electrical engineer and a mechanical engineer in the Interactive Media Lab, University of Toronto. The current Centivizer prototype has a slider, a lever, and large coloured buttons as input devices to a number of game-like applications where interactions are rewarded with music and lights. Feedback is provided with a large screen and speakers, and the unit also has a pullout draw that contains two standalone activities (a Whack-a-Mole game and a talking phone). We are also developing a modular Centivizer platform where third party developers will be invited to contribute (and license) their modules to the system. Earlier Centivizer prototypes have been demonstrated at conferences and informally user tested in a number of long-term care homes. The purpose of this SIP Accelerator project is to evaluate the Centivizer prototype at Lakeside Long-Term Care Centre in Toronto, Ontario and at York Care Centre in Fredericton, New Brunswick as a final step towards commercialization. Our goal is to develop and market the first Centivizer product once this research project is completed. Key deliverables for this project will be an improved Centivizer prototype and a finalized product specification ready for productization and marketing, along with an application program interface (API) for adding modules to the Centivizer system.