Sound Mixed Reality Prompts for People with Dementia
Shital Desai, Joel Ong, Deborah I. Fels, Arlene J. Astell · Focal Press eBooks · 2022
People with Dementia (PwD) can benefit from mixed reality technologies (MRTs) that can support them in activities of daily living and communication for social engagement, which are vital for their wellbeing and for maintaining good quality of life. Sound MRT prompts are effective in generating correct and successful actions in PwD. However, there is limited research on sound MRT prompts with PwD, who are under-represented demographics in mixed reality research. We studied perceptions of PwD with sound MRT prompts with two Augmented Reality (AR) and two Augmented Virtuality (AV) off-the-shelf technologies. Our results show that PwD were successful at perceiving human voice and sound effects that describe the environment and action carried out by PwD correctly, while the intervention from the researcher created distraction and annoyance in PwD. Music tone required researcher intervention for successful and correct perception. Cartoon voice was correctly perceived, but the results were not statistically significant. PwD also found it annoying and distracting, which affected their engagement with the MRT. We discuss reasons for these differences and provide a framework for designers of prompting MRTs for PwD. This is the first study of MRT sound prompts with PwD in natural or/and home settings.