Cognitive assistance to support social integration in Alzheimer's disease

Social integration plays a key role in the maintenance of quality of life and health status of people with dementia and their care-givers. Here, we outline a general concept for cognitive assistance and argue for the specific importance of technical support for outdoor mobility to preserve opportunities for social contacts and activities. Based on commercially available devices and systems described in the literature, we provide a conceptual framework for mobility assistance which integrates both technical features and user requirements. The technical development of assistive systems so far was mainly concentrated on static user models. In order to account for the progressive nature of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease, more dynamic approaches need to be pursued to enable optimal assistive effects.