LiveNature: ambient display and social robot-facilitated multi-sensory engagement for people with dementia

The wellbeing of people with dementia in long-term care facilities is hindered, as they spend most of their time alone with little engagement in meaningful activities and an absence o f pleasant senso r y stimula tion. We designed an interactive system called LiveNature that adopts a novel combined approach involving an ambient display unit and an interactive robotic sheep, to offer long-term access and to engage people with dementia in long-term care facilities in rewarding experiences. LiveNature aims to provide holistic multi-sensory engagement to provoke positive emotions, increase social bonding, and restore attentiveness and communication. The design was implemented within a Dutch nursing home. An evaluation of the user experience and the effectiveness of the design was conducted in a reallife setting with nine participants, five family members, two caregivers and fo ur volu nteers, using o b servatio nal rating scales and semi-structured interviews. The results of the rating scales and the findings from qualitative data showed evidence of enhanced positive engagement.