Avatar Based Technology Use in Dementia: A Review (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The number of Americans with dementia is increasing, and there is a need to assist clinicians, patients, and informal caregivers in the assessment and monitoring of disease progression, and activities of daily living in patients with dementia. Technologies that use avatars to help patients with dementia have become more prevalent and hold promise to assist caregivers and healthcare teams. OBJECTIVE Describe the state of the literature for current and potential applications of avatar technology for individuals with dementia. METHODS Articles were screened using the search engines Pubmed and Google Scholar. The search terms used for the screening were a combination of: “avatar”, “geriatric”, “dementia”, and “mild cognitive impairment”. Each article was assessed by its methodological quality to determine its value for the review. RESULTS Avatars can be beneficial for a range of dementia care objectives. Virtual reality environments with avatar implementations, speech recognition technology and sensor technology can be used to assess a patient’s cognitive function. Gamifying virtual experiences with avatars, conversational artificial intelligence, and avatar-based virtual support groups can improve socialization in patients with dementia and their caregivers. Avatars can also help patients with dementia by prompting sequential tasks, setting reminders, and providing emotional support. We recommend avatars have several characteristics to optimally benefit the older population with dementia. These characteristics include: physical neutrality in terms of gender and ethnicity, emotional value, use of sound and large icons for the benefit of patients with sensory impairments, and adaptability to the patients’ emotions and cognitive function. The devices that implement avatars should be easy to use for the patient using large icons, clickable buttons, and using familiar interfaces. Implementation of these facets into avatar-based technology can help improve their efficacy in patients with dementia. CONCLUSIONS Avatars can assist patients with dementia, caregivers, and healthcare providers in a number of ways. More research is needed in this area of focus.