Designing 360 media experiences for families living with dementia

Open Lab looked at ways to create interactive media experiences using photo, audio and 360-degree videos for families living with dementia.

The project took three families on days out and explored how the sensitive capture and curation of digital media can help to keep the experience alive for participants with dementia who might seek to experience such media “in the moment”, in shared social contexts.

Prior works in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) in this area have often focused mainly on reminiscence, however through this work Open Lab chose to look at capturing personalised experiences by gaining an understanding of the individual, their ecology of care and placing the individual’s choices at the forefront of engagement.

The days out included lunch, walking by the seaside, engaging with history through museums and tourist guides, and getting to know each other through conversations and sharing with the group. As a family they decided on the places and moments they wanted to capture through the 360-degree cameras and photographs.

Our intention was to design media experiences not only for for the person with dementia, but family members too. We found that the rich ways in which the families captured moments can be combined with careful digital media in meaningful ways and can allow them to express themselves whether on their own or with others.

DemVR

Footage from this project was used in DemVR - a hackathon around designing Virtual Reality experiences for people living with dementia. Open Lab ran DemVR to look for new and innovative ideas to help those living with dementia, whether it’s through a VR hardware solution or an interactive VR experience.