Development of a market prototype of a smart toothbrush for individuals with advance dementia

Dementia in general and Alzheimer Disease in particular are among the most challenging health conditions in our century. Experiencing cognitive decline, resulting in relying on others for daily living activities and impairment in basic mental tasks are the main symptoms. There are yet no proven treatments to slow or prevent Alzheimer’s Disease or dementia progression; thus, they eventually need full-time care. To help patients to stay at their own home longer and ease the caregiver burden, Smart Assistive Technology (SAT) products may be greatly beneficial. One of the basic activities that Alzheimer’s patients in particular need help with, are basic hygiene needs such as brushing their teeth. In this project, we will develop a market prototype of the recently designed smart toothbrush as an SAT for basic hygiene functions of dementia patients. The design includes hardware and software. The hardware includes 9-Axis (gyro, accelerometer, compass) motion sensor, temperature sensor, individually addressable red green blue (RGB) light emitting diodes (LEDs), voice module and other electrical components, while the software includes real-time monitoring of several dependent and independent tasks using a parallel algorithm to assist the users.

Faculty Supervisor:

Zahra Kazem-Moussavi

Student:

Mohammad E Shakeri Jannati

Partner:

Riverview Health Centre

Discipline:

Engineering - computer / electrical

Sector:

Health care and social assistance

University:

University of Manitoba