Winners of World JAIN Challenge 2024!
In this edition of the WJC 2024, JAIN and INTERDEM collaborated again well. Various members of INTERDEM and of its taskforce Assistive Technology participated in the jury of this challenge.
With this challenge, knowledge will be shared about AI based technology products in dementia care, worldwide, and this will hopefully progress this field further!
There were applications from over the world, from Brasil to China and from Sweden to Israel. All were assessed by a great international jury from INTERDEM, Expertise Centre of Dementia and Technology, Vilans and Alzheimer Europe. There were experts in the field of development, usability, effects and implementation. Also experience experts joined the review process via focus groups organised by Alzheimer Europe (from the European Working Group of People with Dementia and the Dementia Caregivers Group. From the applications, six finalists were selected in the category prototype or product.
The finalists were:
For the prototype: Help-ICE (Jeroen Fransen); Empathic coach (Roel Boumans); and GG care (David Grey).
For the products: Calendar clock (Teun Kortekaas); Memory lane (Rudolf Wolterbeek Muller; and D-time (Felix Janszen).
On April 23, 2024 the winners were announced in a broadcasted meeting (this can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0doL6jcikc).
The winners are GG care (prototype) and Memory Lane (product)!
GG care (by David Grey, UK) is a virtual elderly and dementia care guide powered by Amazon Alexa’s Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology. It initiates interactive reminders to support users in daily activities, including medication, meals, and social interaction. The system guides users through voice-controlled interactions without stigmatizing medical devices, providing personal support and reducing agitation. The jury considered the prototype to elaborate well on an existing wide-spread tool, it is clear in its use, usable, helpful and it seems affordable for persons with dementia.
Memory Lane (by Rudolf Wolterbeek Muller) is a smart photoframe that offers personalized support for people with dementia, their families, and professional caregivers. It stimulates memories, promotes safety and independence, and reduces feelings of isolation. With features like video calls and lifestyle monitoring it promotes connectivity and quality of life. The jury liked that it is a whole package of services and that everything is shown with pictures. It seems easy to use for people who are not familiar with digital solutions. The team has expertise in developing software/apps for people living with dementia, it seems to be designed with ease of use in mind and the application demonstrates an understanding of dementia. It aligns well with the aims of JAIN.
The World JAIN Challenge was again an interesting and informative journey the participants, jury members and organisers. We hope to keep on learning from each other, collaborating with each other and together make JAIN’s mission possible: worldwide affordable AI based products to promote quality of life for people with dementia and their carers!
Thanks to all participants in the challenge!
And to all the jury members:
Ana Barbosa Shirley Evans Rikke Gregersen Ans Tummers-Heemels Lizzy Boots David Neal Rachael Kelley Ulla Eloniemi-Sulkava Duygu Sezgin Johan van der Leeuw Dirk Lukkien Jenny van der Steen – van Kampen Marco Blom Marjolein de Vugt Kevin Quaid Lieselotte Klotz Angela Pototschnigg Věra Ryšavá Sonata Mačiulskytė, Peter Banda, Paddy Crosbie, Barry Northedge
by Franka Meiland (chair of the jury and treasurer of JAIN Foundation) and Hans Arnold (ceo of JAIN Foundation)