Glassistant

Virtual assistant to support people with MCI based on Smart Glasses

Glassistant is a virtual assistant based on Smart Glasses to support people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Mild Cognitive Impairment is a cognitive impairment, which is characterized by subjective and objective limitations in the areas of memory, attention and thought. This can lead to difficulties with more complex tasks in everyday life. It can also be a first sign of dementia.

In order to assist patients who are affected by MCI(mild cognitive impairment) in day-to-day tasks, we developed Glassistant. Through Glassistant, MCI patients are to be given the opportunity to participate independently in the social environment for longer. This is offered by an inconspicuous assistant, who activates with the help of Smart Glasses and offers help. When an auxiliary position is required, it can be determined by sensors. When the user’s stress level increases, Glassistant analyzes the current environment and uses Augmented Reality to display information about objects, the location or general daytime information. In addition, a function for reminding the medicine intake is provided.

Another important goal was to avoid stigmatization of the user. The use of Smart Glasses is therefore particularly suitable, because even though currently available devices are still visually recognizable as such, the rapid development in this area can be assumed that Smart Glasses can already be fully integrated in conventional spectacles in a few years and thus will no longer be recognizable as tool. Irrespective of the visual inconspicuousness, another core element of the project was the unobtrusiveness in the operation: the user does not necessarily have to ask the system for help, but the actual emotions and situations of the person are recognized automatically and help settings are automatically displayed or offered.