Dementia Eyes: Perceiving Dementia with Augmented Reality

Abstract

Dementia is a global health crisis, of which there is a need to understand the patients’ perception towards improving their quality of life. We propose Dementia Eyes, a mobile AR experience that simulates common visual symptoms of senile dementia based on the known pathology and caregivers’ actual experience with patients. Leveraging an iPhone and a Head-Mounted Display (HMD), we developed a real-time application which allows users to see the world from the perspective of an Alzheimer’s type of dementia (AD) patient. The experience was validated by professional medical workers in Japan, and the result advocates for the efficacy of the empathy we intended to bring to them.