Problem Scenario

It is a common problem for people with dementia to go out and wander. The exact reason and nature of this behaviour can vary a lot between different people and even different situations. In one instance, for example, a person might in a clear state of mind decide to go out for a walk, but get lost halfway along the route. In a different case, a person might be convinced they are in the wrong place and want to go "home", while the place they have in mind has long been sold or even taken down. Thirdly, someone's sense of direction might be sufficiently impaired for them to end up in completely the wrong location, despite being confident of where they were going every step of the way. Another case can be that the person is has delusions and thinks that they have to do an activity from the past. Once again, they may go to a location that no longer exists, or that it is no longer a part of their life (eg. a workplace)

Whatever the reason, the wandering of people with dementia is very inconvenient; they are usually not in the right state of mind to know what they're doing, which could potentially lead to annoying or even dangerous situations for both the people themselves and unsuspecting bystanders. Additionally, the family members or caretakers of these people likely have no idea where they are going, leading to even more stressful situations and potentially hours of worried search.

Preventing such situations entirely would be relatively hard. As there is no single reason or series of actions that apply to all such cases, a variety of different problems would need to be considered, all of which could have unique or even conflicting solutions. As a result, it would be extremely difficult to come up with a single device or system that would definitively solve this problem. It might, however, be possible to design a system that will try to prevent the most common displays of the described behaviour, and provide convenient additional functionalities for the remaining cases - such as alerting family members or even GPS tracking.

Bringing this problem a little more into reality, we will put it into perspective of one of the personas, Gretchen. Since Gretchen was a university professor and a very social person, she is used to going out quite a bit. Many of the times, she forgets that she has retired and gets dressed to go to work. When going to the university, she may get lost along her way or if she does successfully make it there, she gets very emotional when everyone refers to her as a former professor. She tends to get very defensive about this as she is still delusional and at times can also get very aggressive. This can put those in her social surroundings in a dangerous position. In the meanwhile, her family and caretaker are very worried as they do not know where they are and where they can be found. 

Design Scenario

Our vision for the system is a humanoid robot that will interact with the person trying to go out. Through simple conversation it will try to determine the mental state of the person as well as their intentions and mood. Based on these factors, the robot will try one of several approaches. For example, if the person is unsure of what they are doing, verbal persuasion might be enough to have them stay in. In the case where the person is determined, however, but their reasons are only applicable to a past version of themselves, the robot will try to use music and other cues to remind them of their current situation. This could also be used to calm the person if they are agitated.

Of course, these approaches might not be able to convince the person with dementia from going out. In this case the robot will again discern two distinct cases: one where the person wants to go out for a certain activity (that they used to perform in the past or can still perform), and one where the person simply wants to go out for a walk. In the first case, the robot tries to convince the person to stay inside by having a conversation with them and suggesting an alternative activity that can be done indoors instead. Music that is associated with that activity (personalized to the person) so that the person is more convinced to stay inside and do the activity instead. If the person is still not convinced to stay inside, some calming music can be played while the robot interacts with the person to convince them some more. 

one where the person is reasonable and in the right state of mind, and one where the person does not mind the robot at all. In the first case, the robot will offer to come with the person to keep them company and prevent them from getting lost - the robot will determine a way home when needed and keeps the person in the right state of mind. In the second case the person might not allow the robot to come along and even actively avoid the robot or obstruct its path. In this case the robot itself can not do much more to interfere, and its best alternative is to immediately warn caretakers or family members that might have more influence on the person. We believe that these measures will prove quite effective in mitigating or even preventing the negative effects of wandering.