14-year-old creates app to help Alzheimer’s patients recognize people
Image: INQUIRER.net Stock Photo
Emma Yang, a 14-year-old coder, has been developing an app that she believes may help improve the daily lives of Alzheimer’s patients.
Yang calls the app Timeless and is developing it for the iOS. The app has been created to help Alzheimer’s patients recognize people they have forgotten and remind them of daily tasks.
The young developer drew inspiration from her own experience with a grandmother who has Alzheimer’s, reports Fast Company.
Through Timeless, an Alzheimer’s patient may use an iPhone or iPad to help them remember people. The app does this through facial recognition. By having a person stand in front of an iPhone or iPad, Timeless will be able to tell the patient who they are interacting with.
Image: Indiegogo/Emma Yang
Timeless also has small reminders for daily tasks as well as a contact list to quickly contact their family.
It also has a “me” page, which contains the patient’s personal information such as age, name, phone number and address.
“I saw a lot of things about how AI and facial recognition were really evolving and being applied in more and more areas, especially healthcare,” said Yang.
Yang has partnered with her mentors from a tech company called Kairos. They also happen to have developed the facial recognition software being used in Timeless.
Yang also started a crowdfunding campaign to financially help her take the project to the next phase of development.
“There are no apps on the market that really help Alzheimer’s patients with their daily lives,” said Yang.
She added, “A lot of times people think that it’s not going to help, or the elderly can’t really use technology, but in fact, if you strategically introduce it to them, it’s actually a possibility and can really benefit their lives.”
Timeless has been specifically designed to be user-friendly for the elderly. A pilot rollout of the app has been projected for the second half of this year. Alfred Bayle /ra
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