Remote cognitive rehabilitation support system for menu and meal preparation

Abstract

This paper focuses on the preparation and consumption of meals-menu planning, grocery shopping, cooking, and consumption of people with higher brain dysfunction (HBD) as a novel approach to cognitive rehabilitation. A rehab scheme can be implemented using a cooking navigation system that supports menu planning that is tailored to the disability level of patients, yet patients tend to become overly dependent on their therapists when they work together in close proximity. To break this dependence, we propose a novel remote rehab and support system that markedly improves the self-reliance of patients by removing the therapist from the scene to observe the patients from a distance by video. We conducted a pilot rehab trial using the proposed scheme on three subjects with HBD, and the results suggest a significant improvement in cognitive function.