MemoryLane: An intelligent mobile companion for elderly users

Abstract

Mobile technologies have the potential to enhance the lives of elderly users, especially those who experience a decline in cognitive abilities. However, diminutive devices often perplex the aged and many HCI problems exist. This paper discusses the development of a mobile intelligent multimodal storytelling companion for elderly users. The application, entitled MemoryLane, composes excerpts selected from a lifetime’s memories and conveys these past memories in a storytelling format. MemoryLane aims to possess the capability to produce bespoke stories that are both appropriate and pleasing to the user; this paper documents the proposed methodology and system design to accomplish this. As MemoryLane is expected to be deployed on a Personal Digital assistant (PDA), the preliminary field work to date investigating the usability of PDAs by elderly users is also discussed