An Augmented Reality Mobile Game Design to Enhance Spatial Memory in Elderly with Dementia

Empirical studies show that playing digital games provide innovative and engaging activities for enhancing physical, psychological and cognitive behavior in older adults. 75% of people aged between 50-64 and near 50% of people aged more than 65 years are cellphone owners and use it to check social media, contact friends and read books. The elderly generation is growing and forming an inexperienced game market. The aim of this study is to apply knowledge in real life by designing a daily-activity-transferable game experience using instructions from literature review. This study uses design methodology of Stanford University containing five steps; empathy, define, ideate, prototype, test. We conducted brainstorming sessions based on data gathered from user interviews, video analyzing, online survey and secondary research. Users selected randomly from retired men and women aged between 50 to 70 years old struggling with mild dementia or those who are likely to have dementia in future. Results of this study is practical and show that using personalization, group games, gesture control and first-person perspective in game scenarios provide daily-activity-transferable enhancement in cognitive brain games among elderly with dementia specially in nursery homes.

Keywords:

Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) , dementia , digital game experience , augmented reality , spatial memory