MATY

Caregiving to a person with Alzheimer's can be a very demanding task, both from physical and psychological perspectives. Technological responses to support caregiving, and improve the quality of life of people with Alzheimer's and their caregivers are lacking. Using a research through design approach, we devised a robot focused on empowering people with Alzheimer and fostering their autonomy, from the initial sketch to a working prototype. MATY is a robot that encourages communication with relatives and promotes routines by eliciting the person to take action, using a multisensorial approach (e.g., projecting biographical images, playing suggestive sounds, or emitting soothing aromas). The paper reports the iterative, incremental design process performed together with stakeholders. We share first lessons learned in this process with HCI researchers and practitioners designing solutions, particularly robots, to assist people with dementia and their caregivers.