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The purpose of this paper is to present the self-described “journey” of a person with dementia (Brian; author 3) in his re-learning of old technologies and learning of new ones and the impact this had on his life.

This is a single case study detailing the participant's experiences collaborating with a researcher to co-create methods of facilitating this learning process, which he documented in the form of an online blog and diary entries. These were analysed using NVivo to reveal the key themes.

Brian was able to relearn previously used technologies and learn two new ones. This lead to an overarching theme of positive outlook on life supported by person-centredness, identity and technology, which challenged negative perceptions about dementia.

The paper provides an example of how learning and technology improved the life of one person with dementia. By sharing the approach the authors hope to encourage others to embrace the challenge of designing and developing innovative solutions for people with a dementia diagnosis by leveraging both current mainstream technology and creating novel bespoke interventions for dementia.

The personal perspective of a person with dementia and his experiences of (re-) learning provide a unique insight into the impact of technology on his life.

The purpose of this paper is to gain a greater understanding of the development of safer walking technology for people with dementia through contemporary literature.

A two stage systematic approach to searching the literature was adopted. Initially this involved searching the literature to gain a broad overview of the development of safer walking technology and the context in which it has been developed. Then, this literature was examined in detail to look at published evidence surrounding the use of safer walking technology by people with dementia. These articles were quality appraised and a meta ethnographic approach taken to synthesis of the findings.

There is a small but growing body of literature within this field. Whilst there is only limited evidence to support the use of safer walking technologies for people with dementia, the evidence to date indicates great potential for its use. If provided with the right support and guidance, safer walking technology has the potential to increase freedoms and independence for people with dementia; gaining them improved access to outdoor spaces and environments to support their health and wellbeing. However, if the safer walking technology continues to be associated with only risk management it will not achieve this potential.

The published literature within this field is small and has limited generalisability as much of it was generated in recent years has been by the same small research teams, often reusing data sets. There is also very little research that examines the experience of actually using safer walking technology and even less which explores the views of people with dementia. It is evident that a greater breadth and depth of knowledge is needed within this field to develop a clearer understanding of how this technology is used and perceived by all stakeholders concerned. In particular the literature would benefit from greater consideration of the views and experiences of people with dementia themselves.

For many people with dementia, health and social care professionals can play an important role in ensuring appropriate assessment and support in the decision-making process when using safer walking technology. However, greater support is needed in decision making for all people with dementia, especially those people not currently engaged with specialist services. Therefore greater awareness of the benefits and limitations of this technology is needed by all health and social care professionals as well as the general public.

At the time of conducting this review the author is unaware of any other systematic search of literature or overview of research on the use of safer walking technology and its use by people with dementia. Despite this safer walking technology is growing in popularity, commonly recommended by health and social care practitioners and often marketed and purchased directly by people with dementia and their families. This review offers an insight into the development of the technology and the current evidence base for its use.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a Living Lab protocol to evaluate interventions for people with dementia in context. The number of people with dementia is continuously growing, resulting in all kinds of societal challenges. As there is no cure for the diseases today, there is a need to look at alternative ways to combat these challenges, like the design of suitable interventions. These can support people with dementia to live more independent, with a higher quality of life. The protocol is developed over three Living Lab cases. In this, the authors focus on how to involve people living with dementia and the Living Lab stakeholder network.

Over three Living Lab cases, 26 people with dementia, and their caregivers, participated. In these cases, the authors focussed on three different interventions, namely: a reminder system, a daylight lamp and a mobile interface. Yet, a similar protocol was implemented that was built upon insights from its previous case. Hereby, the authors gathered hands-on insights concerning the design and implementation of a Living Lab protocol. Finally, the authors propose a protocol for those interested in pursuing similar goals.

For the resulting proposal, the authors found that it is important to actively involve the relevant Living Lab stakeholders from the start of the process. Because, first, care stakeholders protect participants as gatekeepers, and have a general interest in the interventions. Second, for industry stakeholders, the in-context Living Lab set-up needs to be aligned with their needs to gather usable insights for their interventions. Finally, the authors propose to keep the users engaged beyond the studies by facilitating a Living Lab community. This leads to a higher user engagement and a wider pool to select from for future Living Lab sessions.

However, the authors have to be careful to base conclusions on this protocol, due to the limited number of participants and, therefore, the authors suggest this is investigated further. Additionally, the authors feel the role of stakeholders, and who is in the lead, should be investigated further.

By reflecting on three Living Lab cases, the authors propose a ready-to-use Living Lab protocol that can be applied by anybody who is interested to design more suitable interventions for impaired users.

The building of a community as a basis of a Living Lab provides opportunities for all relevant stakeholders, and could reach beyond the development of interventions.

The paper provides hands-on insights on applying and developing a Living Lab protocol. This is done by structurally involving relevant stakeholders, while continuously adapting to the user’s needs. Only by continuing to do so, the societal challenges can successfully be addressed.

Music stimulation is considered beneficial for people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease. The purpose of this paper is to assess a tablet-based program to promote music-related hand responses and positive engagement (e.g. singing or moving the body with the music) in people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease.

The program was implemented with 20 participants according to a non-concurrent multiple baseline design across participants. The participants were provided with a tablet whose screen worked as a sensor. During the intervention, sensor activations by hand responses led the tablet to present 10 s segments of preferred songs; an absence of sensor activation led the tablet to produce a prompt.

The participants’ mean frequencies of hand responses (i.e. sensor activations) per 5 min session increased from mostly zero during baseline to between about 9 and 20 during the intervention. The mean percentages of observation intervals with participants’ positive engagement increased from 0 to 12 during the baseline to between 13 and 55 during the intervention. The differences between baseline and intervention data were statistically significant for all participants.

A tablet-based program, such as that used in this study, may help people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease develop specific music-related responses and positive engagement.

This study aims to present recent trends in touchscreen research through scientometric analysis. Devices with touchscreen are powerful tools for performing specialized operations. The touch screens of tablets, smartphones, laptops and television play an important role in teaching, learning and research.

The data was collected from Web of Science database from 2011 to 2021 and analysed using MS-Excel and VOSviewer software. After analysing 389 research papers, the authors identified the high impact journals, collaboration of countries, institutions, authors and growth trend of publications. Analysing the most used keywords, country-wise distribution of publications and research collaboration between institutions will help interpret the research trends in the selected time span.

The publications show an increase in number over the years from 2011 to 2021. Among the countries, USA has the highest number of 127 articles published, followed by England (61) and Canada (30). The results showed that the multiple authorship pattern in touchscreen publication is high when compared to single authors. The institutional analysis indicated that the organizations publishing more than five documents in the area were mostly from United Kingdom, Australia, USA and Korea. Timeline visualizations identified prominent keywords like touchscreen, performance, operant platform, Alzheimer’s disease, etc. in the subject. Interdisciplinary research is dominant in the subject, as seen from the most preferred journals and keywords.

The analysis does not include a comprehensive coverage of the research output, as only Web of Science database from 2011 to 2021 in a 10-year period is included.

The study would benefit stakeholders, including manufacturers and researchers alike, to know the future of touchscreen research.

This study is pertinent to socio-psychological fields because touchscreen technology encourages social connection among older persons and may help foster early literacy skills.

This paper will provide an understanding of the global developments in touchscreen research with recommendations for future research.

The article aims to identify the association between each smart home service category's benefits and barriers to their adoption. The results seek to identify efficient approaches that motivate users to adopt smart homes services and support suppliers to establish strategies to expand and optimize smart home technologies.

The research used the chi-square test of independence to reveal the association between the benefits and barriers perceived by the users during smart home services implementation. Furthermore, the statistical analysis using reliable evidence based on 122 articles reported in the literature provides valuable knowledge for smart home implementation.

The results reveal which barriers and benefits in the smart home are essential for implementing each type of service. Therefore, the association between barriers and benefits with smart home services implementation can support the dissemination of smart home technologies.

The article provides evidence to develop strategies for implementing smart home services, supporting companies with guidelines to be more assertive in disseminating smart homes technologies.

Using the literature as a data source and raising the associations through the chi-square test of independence, the methodology provides a high level of generalization and strong evidence regarding the association of smart home benefits or barriers associated with every smart home service.

Despite continuing workforce challenges over the last decade, the social care system is considered a key enabler in keeping older people out of hospital. In response to the workforce challenges, White Paper was released, which acknowledged the opportunities afforded by digital technology to assist older people ageing at home, often supported by informal caregivers. Given the policy emphasis on digital-enabled care, the most appropriate methods for evaluating its impact on social care outcomes have yet to be determined. The purpose this study was to review the current literature using a systematic approach to understand the methodological limitations to inform more robust evaluations in their use in future research.

This scoping review used a systematic approach adopting the framework of Arksey and O’Malley to examine studies examining the adoption of digital technologies to assist in older people’s ability to age in place.

The 21 relevant studies identified on digital technology to assist ageing-in-place are evolving. To date, it has focused on the efficacy and usability of the digital technologies themselves rather than investigating the impact of such technologies on re/enablement outcomes for older people. To rebalance this emphasis, there needs to be more research investigating the factors that enhance useability of digital technologies by older people and exploiting narrative data gained from qualitative research as they can provide valuable insights.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first scoping review to consider qualitative methodological approaches for exploring ageing in place.

The development and clinical application of digital devices to support individuals with dementia can be challenging due to difficulties meeting the needs of a patient population with largely heterogeneous and progressive symptoms. Memjo Ltd has developed a digital interactive prototype tablet to promote cognitive stimulation and reminiscence. This proof-of-concept case-study aims to understand whether the engagement of individuals with dementia and Huntington's disease (HD) at an early stage is a useful approach to inform the initial development of meaningful digital activities and ultimately its potential introduction into clinical practice.

Five patients with dementia and HD at different stages of progression were recruited from an inpatient secure psychiatric hospital. Engagement, usability and preliminary benefits were assessed using a mixed-methods approach through observations, open-ended questions and subjective ratings.

The content of the tool triggered reminiscence, discussion and positive behavioural and emotional responses. The participants were confident using the tablet but needed support interacting with the touchscreen and, at times, to encourage communication. “Music” and “Videos”, were particularly successful in engaging most participants despite their cognitive and physical difficulties.

This case-study shows that co-production in clinical practice can be successfully implemented to develop activities that meet the interests and needs of patients with dementia and Huntington's disease. The varied and flexible assessment provided rich feedback that will be used to improve the device. This highlights avenues of focus for the development of future pools of activities.

The purpose of this paper was to examine consumer perceptions of aesthetic attributes of textile-based assistive devices (ADs) and the language used by consumers to express those perceptions and concerns. Previous investigations of user feedback for ADs have largely focused on functional attributes rather than aesthetics.

An interpretivist research philosophy was selected to investigate the meaning behind consumer perceptions and to understand their viewpoints on the aesthetic dimensions of ADs. Using product reviews for two ADs sold on Amazon.com as data, the researchers conducted qualitative data analysis through coding and interpretation of meanings behind reviews to determine consumers’ perceptions related to their ADs.

The authors identified consumer concerns linking to aesthetics evidenced as a multisensory integration of visual, tactile and olfactory cues. Consumer-preferred language used to address aesthetic preferences was found to supplement the literature. Aesthetic considerations were found to be impactful on avoiding stigma and encouraging or discouraging continued use of the devices.

Findings may contribute to the development of textile-based ADs with improved aesthetics to enhance user experiences. New ways of using consumer language to interpret user needs may assist in future research and design practice for consumer products.

The use of consumer product reviews as a rich source of user data is discussed in this paper. As previous research on assistive technology has largely focused on functionality, results of this analysis offer insight into consumers’ aesthetic judgments related to ADs and bring a sensory perspective to the research area.