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ACCESS: Assisted Cognition in Community, Employment
and Support Settings
Core Function: Research and Evaluation
The goal of the ACCESS:Assisted Cognition in Community, Employment and Support Settings project is to investigate and create novel computer-based devices that will enhance the quality of life of people with cognitive disabilities. These devices are memory and problem-solving aids that will help individuals perform the tasks of day-to-day life more independently. This project will also demonstrate the use of assistive technologies for cognition (ATC) in increasing independence and decreasing reliance on the family/friend/caregiver network and paid support staff.
In this project, we investigate the use of ATC as tools for caregivers in supporting individuals with cognitive disabilities in living, working, and fully participating in community activities. Initially, we are focusing on the development of devices that provide assistance in route finding and community mobility to individuals with cognitive disabilities.
The first assisted cognition device we are developing is called Opportunity Knocks. Opportunity Knocks will detect when a user is likely to be lost or wandering and will guide the user home or to another place of safety when necessary. Opportunity Knocks meshes several technologies (cell phone, GPS receiver and wireless modem). In its final form, Opportunity Knocks will learn a user's typical daily routines (including locations of activities), monitor for variations in the individual's typical day-to-day activities, and then decide whether a prompt is necessary if the routine is unexpectedly changed. Opportunity Knocks exists as a preliminary proof of concept prototype.
The outcome of our work will be the continued development of prototype devices that provide sophisticated assistance in functional areas requiring cognitive skills as well as the training protocols needed to prepare users to effectively use them.
This project is a collaborative endeavor among CHDD, the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. It builds upon previous work conducted in the field of assisted cognition and artificial intelligence at the University of Washington and the Intel Research Laboratory/Seattle.
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