S2 2019 UCD Report: Tracking Solutions for Dementia Patients

This report explores user-centered design principles through the lens of tracking solutions for dementia patients who do not use mobile phones. It identifies and evaluates three primary tracking methods: GPS tracking watches, GPS bracelets, and pocket finders. The report delves into the functionality, comfort, and acceptability of each solution for both patients and caregivers, acknowledging the critical role of GPS technology. Furthermore, it addresses the ethical issues associated with these technologies, such as privacy concerns and the potential for misuse of location data. The analysis includes discussions on the benefits and limitations of each method, providing a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities in using technology to support individuals with dementia.

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User Centred Design
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Executive Summary
The report introduces the various tracking solutions that could be utilized by the care
givers to keep track of their people with dementia with no mobile phones. The three tracking
solutions has been discussed in the report that would help the care givers to know the current
place where their patients with dementia are wandering. The comfort as well as the acceptability
of these tracking solutions both by the patient as well as the caregiver has been discussed. The
various ethical issues posed by these particular technologies have also been discussed. A major
role is played by the global position system or GPS.

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Table of Contents
Introduction (170)............................................................................................................................3
Body (1360).....................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion (170).............................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction (170)
The term “UCD” or user centered design covers six principles which are essential. This
principles consists of setting the goals of a business that comprises of determination of the
intended customers, target market and the basic competition which is centralized for all the
participation of the users and the designs. The second principle is to understand of the users
which acts as a driving force for the designs (White and Montgomery 2014). Then comes the
principle of designing the total experience of the customer as everything seen, touched and heard
by the customer is designed by the multidisciplinary team. The next principle is the evaluation of
designs that comprises of the feedback of the user which is gathered by speed and acts as a
driving factor for designing of the products.
The principle followed by this is the assessment of the competitiveness which indicates
towards persistent focusing required by the competitive design on the process by which the tasks
are carried out by the users. The last principle is the management for the users because an
integral plan is played by the feedback of the users for decision making, planning of products etc.
The aim of this report is identify three ways which might be helpful in keeping the track of the
location of the persons having dementia and do not utilize a mobile phone (Holbo et al., 2013).
This report also aims for the evaluation of the acceptability and comfort of the tracking solutions
to the people with dementia as well as ethical issues that are posed by the utilized technology.
Body (1360)
The word dementia is one word used for referring to a bunch of symptoms that are
associated with a certain decline in the thinking skills or in the memory of a person which is very
severe for reducing the capabilities of a person for performing the daily activities. The first

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solution for tracking the person with dementia using no mobile phones is the utilization of the
GPS tracking watches. In simple words, a GPS watch is a type of device which is integrated with
a receiver of GPS that is utilized by the people with dementia or various people. It is in the form
of a single unit that is strapped on the wrist of the patient which looks very similar to that of a
bracelet (Fleming and Sum 2014). Various features as well as abilities is contained in the watch
on the basis of the purpose of the watch for what it is made and rather form a smart watch that is
very helpful in tracking the location of the holder of the watch.
There are various purposes regarding the utilization of the kind of GPS tracking smart
watches like it can be worn by the patients suffering from dementia. It can also be worn by the
sports persons and regarding the fitness and health purposes (McKinstry et al., 2013). The
external sensors can be linked and connected by many by the wireless protocols or directly to the
computer with the help of USB for transferring of data as well as the configuration. It is also
helpful in showing the distance covered by a particular person wearing it, the location of the
person wearing it and so on (Wan et al., 2015). The most common sensors that are utilized are
the heart rate monitors and the footpads. The foot pod consists of the running cadence as well as
the speed sensors.
A foot pod is utilized for replacing or supplementing the data contained in the GPS like
the distance required for the log to watch and share and also the speed of the treadmill is also
provided (Bowes et al., 2013). The common place is the recharging with the help of USB. The
caregiver as well as the person with dementia will be very comfortable with the utilization of the
GPS tracking watch and it will be happily acceptable by both the care giver as well as the
patients with dementia.

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Particular ethical issues that could be posed by the technology of GPS tracking smart
watches are the GPS systems that are in built in the GPS tracking watch is that the systems of
GPS transmits the details of location of the individuals violates the privacy right of the
individuals. The information regarding the whereabouts of the individuals without any of their
consent is provided by these kinds of systems. Each and every user of the GPS smart watches
should be every bit safe without their personal information getting transmitted to the third parties
(Novitsky et al., 2105). The best part is this kind of particular information in turn can be utilized
by the officials of the law-enforcement for the verification of the location of the persons at any
certain point of time.
The second tracking solution for tracking people with dementia using no mobile phone is
the utilization of the GPS bracelets by the patients of dementia. It will function in the form of
navigation device for always keeping a follow up on the people suffering from dementia and
wandering various locations. The location of the patients can be tracked by the movement of the
device and hence the current location of the patient suffering from dementia will be known (Span
et al., 2013). The GPS bracelets will be very comfortable for both the patient with dementia as
well as the care giver responsible for looking after the patient with dementia.
The GPS bracelet will be accepted by the patient with dementia as well as their
respective care givers. The location data which is recorded by the tracking of the GPS can be
stored inside the tracking unit of the global positioning system. The recorded data can also be
transferred to the devices that are connected to the internet (Solanas et al., 2013 ). This
transmission takes place with the utilization of the GPRS embedded in that particular unit.
The GPS bracelets is a method for tracking the people with dementia as they wander in
various location and on the other hand do not utilize mobile phones. The people with dementia

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needs to be always monitored and kept a watch on. There are various ankle devices that have
GPS within it and in turn is very helpful in making the care giver of the respective patient aware
of the location where the patient with dementia is currently present and wandering. These
bracelets can not only be tied on the wrists of the patients with dementia but also these global
system positioning in built bracelets can be tied on the ankles of the patients which in turn will
help the care giver to keep a track of the current location of their respective patients whenever
they are wandering at a certain place.
The particular ethical issues that posed to the technology might be that the data is created
by the GPS bracelet that in turn could be stored on the computers. There are various cases where
best of the systems of the software have been destroyed as well as compromised. These kinds of
cases might increase the chances of the availability of confidential, personal and sensitive data to
the hands of the hackers or the criminals that makes the misuse of the confidential data. Through
the information that is provided by the global positioning system makes the criminals aware
regarding the areas or schedules of the individuals that are frequently provided by the
individuals.
A general example of how the information regarding the global positioning system could
be promised is there are various kinds of global positioning systems available that works in the
synchronization with the various vehicles and helps in completing the function of the vehicles.
But in case if certain hackers gets access to the GPS in the vehicle, they would be successful in
shutting off the engine of the vehicle at any point of time (Evans et al., 2015). Similarly, if a
hacker gets the access of the GPS in the bracelet worn by the patient with dementia, the hackers
could easily switch off the bracelet and make the location of patient with dementia wandering at
a certain location unreachable. If this would be the case, it would have been impossible for the

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care givers of their respective patient suffering from dementia to keep track of the location of
their patients wherever they were currently wandering.
The third tracking solution for tracking the patients with dementia carrying no mobile
phones along with them is keeping a small device known as the pocket finder in the clothes of
the people with dementia. The device called pocket finder is helpful in providing an ideal way
for the care givers for keeping track of the people with dementia. This device is very helpful for
the school going children with dementia as well as the older people who want to spend their time
without the interference of anyone. With the utilization of this device, the care givers of the
patients with dementia gets an alert about the current location of their patients facing dementia
(Mok et al., 2014). The care givers also gets an alert when their patients go far from their current
location.
This small device is very comfortable for both the older people as well as the school
going children along with the care giver as the care giver can directly keep track of their patients
suffering from dementia. This device is very acceptable by the people with dementia as this is
not worn by the patient rather this tiny device is kept in the pockets or clothes of the people
suffering from dementia.
The ethical issues that are posed to this particular technology is that the GPS present in
that small device is vulnerable to various threats. The recorded data of the individuals can be
compromised one hacked by the criminals. The failure in the security of the systems might lead
to the loss of the sensitive information and misuse of it.

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Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that there are various methods for tracking the
location of the people with dementia wandering at various certain location. An important role is
played by the global positioning system in all of the three methods that are mentioned in this
report (Gibson et al., 2016). There are various ideas where the GPS bracelets can be tied and the
information can be tracked. There are various upcoming technologies that will help the
caregivers to keep a track of their patients without the tracked sensitive information getting
vulnerable to the third parties and being misused.

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References
White, E.B. and Montgomery, P., 2014. Electronic tracking for people with dementia: an
exploratory study of the ethical issues experienced by carers in making decisions about usage.
Dementia, 13(2), pp.216-232.
Fleming, R. and Sum, S., 2014. Empirical studies on the effectiveness of assistive technology in
the care of people with dementia: a systematic review. Journal of Assistive Technologies, 8(1),
pp.14-34.
McKinstry, B. and Sheikh, A., 2013. The use of global positioning systems in promoting safer
walking for people with dementia. Journal of telemedicine and telecare, 19(5), pp.288-292.
Wan, J., Byrne, C.A., O’Grady, M.J. and O’Hare, G.M., 2015. Managing wandering risk in
people with dementia. IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, 45(6), pp.819-823.
Bowes, A., Dawson, A. and Greasley-Adams, C., 2013. Literature review: the cost effectiveness
of assistive technology in supporting people with dementia.
Novitzky, P., Smeaton, A.F., Chen, C., Irving, K., Jacquemard, T., O’Brolcháin, F., O’Mathúna,
D. and Gordijn, B., 2015. A review of contemporary work on the ethics of ambient assisted
living technologies for people with dementia. Science and engineering ethics, 21(3), pp.707-765.
Span, M., Hettinga, M., Vernooij-Dassen, M., Eefsting, J. and Smits, C., 2013. Involving people
with dementia in the development of supportive IT applications: a systematic review. Ageing
research reviews, 12(2), pp.535-551.

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Solanas, A., Martinez-Balleste, A., Perez-Martinez, P.A., de la Pena, A.F. and Ramos, J., 2013.
m-carer: Privacy-aware monitoring for people with mild cognitive impairment and dementia.
IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 31(9), pp.19-27.
Evans, J., Brown, M., Coughlan, T., Lawson, G. and Craven, M.P., 2015, August. A systematic
review of dementia focused assistive technology. In International conference on human-
computer interaction (pp. 406-417). Springer, Cham.
Mok, Z. and Müller, N., 2014. Staging casual conversations for people with dementia. Dementia,
13(6), pp.834-853.
Gibson, G., Newton, L., Pritchard, G., Finch, T., Brittain, K. and Robinson, L., 2016. The
provision of assistive technology products and services for people with dementia in the United
Kingdom. Dementia, 15(4), pp.681-701.
Holbø, K., Bøthun, S. and Dahl, Y., 2013, October. Safe walking technology for people with
dementia: what do they want?. In Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS
Conference on Computers and Accessibility (p. 21). ACM.