VALMA: Voice, Activity, and Location Monitoring for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias
By Tung, James Y.; Semple, Jonathan F.L.; Woo, Wei Xian; Hsu, Wei-Shou; Sinn, Mathieu; Roy, Eric A.; Poupart, Pascal; RESNA/ICTA 2011: Advancing Rehabilitation Technologies for an Aging Society, June 5-8, 2011, Toronto, Canada,Publication Date: 2011
Paper outlines the development of an ambulatory sensor system designed to capture natural behaviors across multiple domains to profile lifestyle risk factors related to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias. Overall system design criteria were based on applicability to the elderly population at greatest risk for dementias and needed to be unobtrusive, sensitive, simple to use and control, and considerate to private data. The Voice, Activity, and Location Monitoring for Alzheimer’s Disease (VALMA) system has two main components: a smartphone and accelerometers placed on each ankle. The core of the system is an application run on a Nexus One smartphone, which itself runs Google’s Android mobile operating system. The phone contains a GPS receiver used to record location data. A wired headset is connected to the phone and audio data are recorded through the headset’s microphone. The ankle worn accelerometers operate independently of the phone and record data to their own internal memory, which is later retrieved via a USB connection. VALMA is used to monitor physical activity, sleeping patterns, social activity as reflected by mobility and verbal activity patterns, and dual tasking behaviors. Feasibility studies planned for VALMA will include a sample of community dwelling mild to moderate AD patients and healthy age-matched controls. Participants will undergo a battery of cognitive, language, and gait tests, followed by a 4 day everyday activity collection period. It is anticipated that assessment of everyday activity using VALMA will impact the design and prescription of exercise, sleep, and social interventions to prevent and slow disease progression.
Published by: Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) (Website:http://www.resna.org)
Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) (Web Site: http://www.resna.org )
Link to text: http://web.resna.org/conference/proceedings/2011/RESNA_ICTA/tung-69768.pdf
