5 ms·

I had the same thought about Alzheimers sufferers - I know a handful, one quite well. Alas, part of the challenge of the disease is that you're generally not a

I had the same thought about Alzheimers sufferers - I know a handful, one quite well. Alas, part of the challenge of the disease is that you're generally not able to use mental "crutches". E.g. give the person step-by-step instructions, and he misplaces them. In this case, I'd guess that advanced sufferers would most likely not think to look down at what their shoes were telling them or not be able to interpret what they saw. Now if there were a gentle way to have the shoes compel walking in a certain direction, you'd have something very useful for this population.

guylhem 14y ago
Not sure how alzheimer works, but some memories dont vanish - especially the early ones. I.E. when our generation is stuck by the disease (if no cure has been found) will we forget how to use cell phones or a web browser ?? So early technology exposure could change a lot about how the disease impact life. Now if such shoes could exist soon, and people could be exposed to them in an early age, yes that would be a real game change about the impact of alzheimer. (if I m correct about how it works)
femto 14y ago
> Now if there were a gentle way to have the shoes compel walking in a certain direction,.. How about Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS), demonstrated by NTT in 2005 [1,2]? There's also a GVS implementation using an Arduino [3], so it is ripe for integration, especially given the availability of a GPS shield for the Arduino. An auto-homing human! [1] http://www.semanticmedia-showcase.de/WerkstattSM/Forschung/SiggraphBeispiel/16-maeda.pdf http://www.semanticmedia-showcase.de/WerkstattSM/Forschung/S... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNfBrXYYTc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNfBrXYYTc [3] http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,21780.0.html http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,21780.0.html

guylhem 14y ago

Not sure how alzheimer works, but some memories dont vanish - especially the early ones. I.E. when our generation is stuck by the disease (if no cure has been found) will we forget how to use cell phones or a web browser ?? So early technology exposure could change a lot about how the disease impact life. Now if such shoes could exist soon, and people could be exposed to them in an early age, yes that would be a real game change about the impact of alzheimer. (if I m correct about how it works)

femto 14y ago

> Now if there were a gentle way to have the shoes compel walking in a certain direction,.. How about Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS), demonstrated by NTT in 2005 [1,2]? There's also a GVS implementation using an Arduino [3], so it is ripe for integration, especially given the availability of a GPS shield for the Arduino. An auto-homing human! [1] http://www.semanticmedia-showcase.de/WerkstattSM/Forschung/SiggraphBeispiel/16-maeda.pdf http://www.semanticmedia-showcase.de/WerkstattSM/Forschung/S... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNfBrXYYTc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNfBrXYYTc [3] http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,21780.0.html http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,21780.0.html