The effectiveness of assistance dogs mounting ICT devices: A case study of a healthy woman and her dog

Abstract

Recently, various information communication technologies (ICT) devices, such as smartphones, digital voice recorders, and miniature cameras, and various types of content are effective to cope with various symptoms of dementia. However, dementia patients often forget to take their ICT devices with them and forget where they put their devices. We considered the concept that ICT devices are delivered when individuals with dementia need to do tasks instructed by the devices. In general, dogs tend to run after their owners. Therefore, we came up with assistance dogs mounting ICT devices on their back. The dogs run to their owners when smartphones on their backs emitted alarms. In this paper, we conducted to examine the effectiveness of a smartphone mounted on a dog's back compared to a fixed device. A healthy female was asked to turn off the alarm and to perform a task on a voluntary basis when the smartphone emitted the alarm. The results of the case study suggested that individuals with dementia would be willing to perform daily the tasks when instructed to do so by a smartphone mounted on the backs of their dogs. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.