VITA is an interactive cushion that enables people with dementia to play music or personal audio files by touching one of six textile touch pads.
Research has shown that listening to music or everyday sounds can benefit people with dementia by evoking memories, emotions or social interactions. However, it is a challenge to integrate technologies that enable audio experiences into daily healthcare practice. VITA is an interactive cushion that provides an accessible interface for people with dementia to utilize the beneficial effects of sound in daily care practice. A customized online platform allows family members and caregivers to upload and select sound files to play with VITA. People with dementia can play audio content by touching one of six embroidered textile touchpads.
VITA was designed by the Pleyade Innovation Team (PIT), a collaboration between Pleyade, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Holland Art Group, BENDE Rotterdam and Interactive Matter. VITA was evaluated in a field study involving 19 people with advanced dementia in a residential care setting. First, workshops were held with healthcare providers and activity leaders to explain VITA's design philosophy and to co-create scenarios for using the device in daily healthcare practice. After the workshop, the caregivers and activity supervisors used VITA for four weeks during care activities in two different healthcare institutions. Observations were carried out during this period. After these four weeks, a short interview took place with the caregivers to evaluate their experience and use of VITA. Our results provide insight into how VITA supports storytelling, playful experiences, and social connection between residents and caregivers.
Relevant literature and references
Maarten Houben, Rens Brankaert, Saskia Bakker, Gail Kenning, Inge Bongers, and Berry Eggen. 2020. The Role of Everyday Sounds in Advanced Dementia Care. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1–14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376577
Maarten Houben, Rens Brankaert, Gail Kenning, Berry Eggen, and Inge Bongers (2020). The Perspectives of Professional Caregivers on Implementing Audio-Based Technology in Residential Dementia Care. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(17), 6333. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176333
Maarten Houben, Rens Brankaert, and Eveline Wouters. 2020. Stakeholder Perspectives on Design Interventions in Dementia Care. Companion Publication of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 43–47. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3393914.3395868