Dr Patrick Oliver at Newcastle University is looking at ways to give ordinary home applicances new intelligence.
Why?
So that those with dementia can still function safely in a home environment.
Oliver has been looking at everyday appliances and finding innovative ways to make them dementia-friendly. At his laboratory, called ‘The Ambient Kitchen’, there are a number of working demonstrations in place, such as the pressure sensors embedded into the floor which would alert others if someone fell over.
Read more here.

A federally funded project run by Oregon Health and Science University is placing sensor monitors in 300 homes around Portland, Oregon.
Why ?
To see if round-the-clock tracking of older person’s activities can provide clues to impeding Alzheimer’s disease.
As Dr Jeffery Kaye explained at the recent Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on Prevention of Dementia, “measuring how people fare at home – on bad days as well as good ones, not just when they’re doing their best for the doctor – may spot changes that signal someone’s at high risk long before they’re actually demented…If you only assess them once-in-a-blue-moon, you really …read more

In the previous post, I discussed an article about possible plans to tag dementia patients and the elderly so they could be tracked by satellite for their safety.  This proposal has met with mixed reviews.
What do you think?
I’ve put up a new poll about this.  Vote in this poll to let us know whether you think they should be tagged or shouldn’t.  Or are you undecided. 
Also leave a comment below and let us know your opinion about this.

An article in the Manchester (England) Evening News, “Plans to Tag Dementia Patients,” introduces the idea of tagging older, or dementia affected, people so they can be tracked by satellite.  This proposal has been met with mixed reaction.
Balancing freedom and safety becomes the issue.  If someone has cared for a family member with Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia, they would be more likely to favor a tracking monitor.  If a person never has, they might consider this restrictive and repressing the person’s freedom…a form of unnecessary control.
We had a friend, in the mid stages of Alzheimer’s, who left his wife …read more