AID-Watch - Smartwatch for People with Cognitive Impairments

Abstract

In many cases, individuals with cognitive impairments are unable to use basic daily living aids such as a watch and are therefore not able to plan or even go through their daily lives without additional help. For this reason, we developed iteratively and in collaboration with a potential user the product concept AID-Watch. The basic idea of AID-Watch is to replace the traditional wrist-watch with an individual and interactive daily schedule displayed on a Smartwatch. In general, a schedule consists of customizable symbols associated with the user's daily events. This way, users can follow the watch hand wandering past events, rather than common digits of a clock. Furthermore, AID-Watch is complemented by vibrotactile and auditory notification features of ordinary Smart-watches. AID-Watch has been validated in user tests, where we identified improvements in the ability to keep appointments independently, as well as a more extensive understanding of the daily structure. This technological aid could therefore not only relieve family members or caregivers, but also give people with cognitive impairments more independence and autonomy through better time perception.