Use of technology and social media in dementia care: Current and future directions

Table 1 Summary of smart home and sensor technology

Technology	Functions	Originally developed for	Ref.
Alexa-enabled home devices, and Alexa Care Hub	Voice-activated smart speakers, connectable smart home devices, remote smart home monitoring	General use, older adults	Chung and Woo[16], and Amazon[17,18]
Tile	Locate misplaced items	General use	Tile[23]
Water-leak sensor	Smart water shutoff, mobile alerts	General use	D-Link[34], and Moen[35]
Google Nest Protect	Smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, ‘pathlight’ feature	General use	Google Store[38]
iGuard Stove	Smart stove shut-off valve, remote control and monitoring, emergency shut-off	Older adults	GoDaddy[39]
Automatic pill dispensers	Integrated alarms and reminders, multiple medication management, remote monitoring, adherence tracking	Older adults	Vervloet et al[42], Boland et al[43], Paterson et al[44], Hoffmann et al[45], Faisal et al[46], Ahmad et al[47], and Patel et al[48]

Table 2 Summary of therapeutic robots

Technology (company)	Form	Functions and intentions	Ref.
PARO	Baby harp seal	Managing psychosocial symptoms of anxiety, depression and social interaction	Hung et al[66], Petersen et al[67], Pu et al[68], Lane et al[69], Jøranson et al[70], Liang et al[71], Jøranson et al[72], Jøranson et al[73], and Moyle et al[74]
Ollie (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)	Baby otter	Relieve psychosocial symptoms of dementia	IEEE Spectrum[75]
NeCoRo (Omron)	Lap cat	Tactile and recognition sensors and feedback to engage individuals with dementia	Megadroid[76] and Libin and Libin[77]
Joy for All (Hasbro)	Golden retriever pup and cats	Providing social support for individuals experiencing age-related memory loss	Ageless Innovation[78]
Hug by Laugh	Humanoid	Amuse, comfort, engage, beating heart, personalized music playlist, bring joy to support people with late-stage dementia	Hug by Laugh[79]
Kabochan	Humanoid	Reduce neuropsychiatric symptoms and caregiver distress	Ke et al[80] and Chen et al[81]