Experiences of Deploying a Citywide Crowdsourcing Platform to Search for Missing People with Dementia

Abstract

People with Dementia (PwD) suffer from a high risk of getting lost due to their cognitive deterioration, leading to potential safety hazards and significant search efforts. In this paper, we propose DEmentia Caring System (DECS), an effective crowdsourcing platform to search for missing PwD. Specifically, PwD carry our customized Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) tags that broadcast BLE packets, which are detected and then uploaded by mobile volunteers via their smartphones. To further enhance search efficiency, DECS deploys BLE gateways as its infrastructure and analyzes PwD’s daily spatial-temporal mobility patterns. DECS has been deployed in Hong Kong since 2019, supporting 3,100+ PwD’s families with over 45,000 app downloads by volunteers. More importantly, it has successfully served the search for 254 missing cases. This paper reports the unique lessons and experiences learned through our 4-year citywide deployment of DECS.