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Happy Walker

Self-Orientation GPS for Alzheimer’s Patients to Change the Lives of Millions of People Worldwide

September 21, 2015 (Florida, US) - A revolutionary self-orientation app that acts as a GPS for Alzheimer’s sufferers has been developed that will be a life changing solution for millions of persons worldwide.

The system was developed by VISION Localization Systems for people with mild cognitive impairment to replace tracking solutions for Alzheimer’s disease. VISION Localization systems is the pioneer in dementia wandering prevention since 2005 and manufacturer of the Keruve, GPS watch + portable receiver (http://www.keruve.com).

Keruve Happy Walker is a self-orientation system scheduled for release later this year, and is currently undergoing trials in the Netherlands (by the project partners TNO.nl, Vilans.nl and Lyvore.nl). Six in 10 people with dementia will wander, and can become disoriented or may not remember his or her address. Keruve Happy Walker works like a GPS for Alzheimer’s sufferers, helping over 35 million people with mild dementia by letting them to follow simple instructions to find the way back home, giving them much more autonomy in their daily lives.

Company CEO Abilio Caetano says: “The GPS is just the first generation of solution for Alzheimer’s wandering. In the future, we aim to help people with Alzheimer’s to be able to come back home themselves. This novel orientation system could be a step forward, but for security reasons, at the moment, it should also be used with a GPS tracking system like Keruve watch as a backup.”

Keruve Happy Walker is compound of two apps, one for the person with dementia and the other for the caregiver. It uses a simple system to guide the person to the desirable destination, dividing route un partial routes with landmark pictures, an arrow and a map. Using a smartphone, the elderly person can simply press the “take me home” button, and the device will start showing the directions. (test an interactive PDF demo in www.keruve.com/happy-walker/#demo )

The caregiver, using the caregivers app, may also customize the person with dementia navigation screen to show or hide parts of the screen to be more simplistic and avoid being overwhelmed with too much information. In addition, the app includes other valuable features including allowing the caregiver to check the position of the smartphone in case of an emergency, and reroute the user to a safe route if necessary.

A beta version is available for care organizations that would like to test it. Trial requests may be forwarded to: trials@keruve.com.

Background of this project

The Keruve Happy Walker Self-Orientation System is a spin-off from the European AAL Project (Ambient Assisted Living Programme) “Happy Walker” (http://www.aal-europe.eu/projects/happy-walker/), with a total investment of 3.028.000€ along three years of R&D. The Happy Walker Project developed personalized supportive services for people over the age of sixty with the aim to encourage them to have an active life style.

About VISION Localization Systems

VISION Localization Systems are the pioneer and world leader in specialized locators for people with Alzheimer's disease. The company designs, develops and commercializes specialized locators for people with high risk of disappearance with the goal of improving the quality of life of these people and their families. Their flagship product Keruve GPS watch ( http://www.keruve.com ) is used by thousands of persons with Alzheimer’s in more than 20 countries. They collaborate with families, residential homes, Alzheimer's associations and health organizations for the continuous improvement of their solutions.

For further information, videos or images in high resolution, please contact:

Brad Waters
brad.waters@keruve.com
(+1) 352-269-4743
http://www.keruve.com

How does it work?

It could be explained in two simple use cases.

Case 1. Person with dementia gets disoriented, pick up the smartphone, press “take me home” button, and device start showing the directions to take to go back home.

Case 2: Caregiver input a destinations, press start, and person with alzheimer’s leave home with the smartphone that will show him indications to find his way to destination.

Interactive Demo

To test the demo, open this web page with a mobile phone, download the PDF clicking on the image of each App, open the PDF (interactive PDF) in your mobile phone in full screen and start testing the app demo.

Alzheimer's App


   
Caregiver's App


   
Features

The easy self-orientation system is the main feature. It guides the person to the desirable destination, with a landmark picture, an arrow and a map.

In addition this main feature, it provides the following valuable features for the persons with alzheimer’s and their caregivers:

  • Lock mode: after the caregiver setup the destination address, it could lock the app, so the user will only see the self-orientation screen. App cannot be closed, and user will not be confused with other smartphone apps, gestures or features.
  • Own landmarks: Caregiver could perform the most common (and safest) routes, and take pictures (focusing more relevant things than street view) of each landmark.
  • Take me home button. This function replace the destination address with home address and start routing the user back home.
  • Rerouting to safe route. If person with alzheimer’s get disoriented, the system will firstly route to a previously saved safe route, and then route back home using that safe way.
  • Customize navigation screen. Depending on the user profile and preferences, the user or caregiver could hide/show parts of the screen to be more simplistic and avoid overwhelming with too much information.
  • Localization system. The caregiver will be able to check the position of the smartphone in case of emergency.
  • SOS button. When pressed a phone call to the caregiver is performed, plus an SMS with actual position.
  • Interoperability with Keruve localization system. It will work seeamesly with Keruve. Person with dementia could also wear a Keruve watch as a backup, to let caregiver locate him under emergencies in case the elderly person loose the smartphone, runs out of battery, loose mobile signal, etc.
  • Critical situation analysis and alerting. The system monitors if the person with alzheimers is under a known route with a normal behavior. If it deviates too much, if they not follow routing instructions when going back home, or stay to much time in same place, an alert will be sent to the caregiver.
  • App for the caregiver. The caregiver will have an app to be notified of any alert, to let him locate the person with alzheimers, configure and several other valuable tasks.





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