What an achievement!
People with Alzheimer’s have a tendency to wander around aimlessly, often leaving family members anxious and worried.
Like year old Kenneth Shinozuka’s grandfather.
So because he wanted to keep his beloved grandad safe, at 15-year’s old Kenneth invented a gadget which tracked when his grandad began to wander at night.
“My grandfather started wandering out of bed, which caused a lot of accidents,” Kenneth says. “My aunt had to stay awake all night to keep an eye on him and, even then, often failed to catch him leaving the bed.”
Kenneth invention is as simple as it is genius. He developed a simple sensor that attaches to the heel of a sock. So when the wearer gets out of bed, the family member or caregiver gets an alert straight to their smartphone.
And the whizz kid’s device is so impressive, it even won him a prestigious Science in Action Award from Scientific American.
“I developed three enabling technologies: an ultra-thin film sensor that is comfortable to wear, a coin-sized wireless circuit enabled by cutting-edge Bluetooth Low Energy, and apps that transform smartphones into caregivers’ monitors,” Kenneth says.
“A six-month trial on my grandfather validated my hypothesis: the systems detected 100% of the 437 known cases of his wandering and issued alerts within one second of his stepping out of bed. No false alarm was issued.
“I am in the process of testing my technology in nursing homes and investigating patterns from sensor data. In addition to solving the originally intended problem, using the sensor to monitor a larger population of Alzheimer’s patients could lead to a fundamental understanding of the causes of wandering and thus ways to mitigate or prevent it.”
Wow, what an incredible achievement. Talk about making the world a better place!
