A proof of concept personalized music player for persons with alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Numerous studies have shown that persons diagnosed with mild to severe Alzheimer's disease exhibit positive reactions when listening to familiar music. Results show that the disease spares musical memory in comparison to other memory parts of the brain until very late stages of Alzheimer's. This project explores the potential of a minimal user-interface design prototype for smart devices that relies upon simple user interactions, i.e. browsing and skipping, to identify and retrieve familiar and preferred music. We report on the results of a small Wizard of Oz study that provides support for the initial design concept and input to the next round of the design cycle. Most participants were able to interact with the device and to quickly identify preferred music that provided a useful starting point for collaborative filtering-based recommendations.