Reducing dementia related wandering behaviour with an interactive wall

Abstract

People suffering from dementia often have problems with way finding and feel restless. In this paper we present an interactive wall developed for decreasing the amount of wandering behaviour of people suffering from dementia. The installation aims at making these people feel more at home in the nursing homes by guiding them with a motion triggered audio path. This leads them to a wall with large windows displaying images and short movie tracks from their hometown. The results of an observation study show that the interactive wall succeeds in attracting people and thus reducing the wandering behaviour. Remarks of the elderly as well as their family and caretakers support this conclusion.