{"id":78506,"date":"2026-02-06T02:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T05:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/889874042"},"modified":"2026-02-06T02:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T05:29:10","slug":"innovative-tech-aids-dementia-care-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/06\/innovative-tech-aids-dementia-care-at-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovative tech aids dementia care at home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Two engineers from Cambridge, UK, have developed new technology to help people with dementia to live independently for longer, inspired by their personal connections with the condition.<\/p>\n

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr Matt Ash\u2019s mother began showing signs of dementia, prompting him to reduce his working hours to care for her as her condition deteriorated.<\/p>\n

However, he and his siblings \u2013 all with families of their own and busy working lives \u2013 wished for a way that they could make sure she was OK without needing to physically be there, interrupting her independence.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Matt met up with friend Dr James Brown, whom he had met while studying for a PhD at University College London in the late 2000s, and told him about his mum\u2019s diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Both engineers by background, with Matt specialising in medical devices, they believed there must be a way to use technology to help people with dementia maintain their independence, and set to work developing a tool that could help through their start-up, Supersense Technologies.<\/p>\n

Thus, SenS2 was born.<\/p>\n

Designed to be an unobtrusive, low-surveillance monitoring system, SenS2 uses sensors from a single, A4-sized box in the home to monitor the routines and habits of people living with dementia, alerting their families when something is out of the ordinary to let them know they might need to pop in to help.<\/p>\n

Now, Matt, 39, and James, 42, are finalists in the Longitude Prize on Dementia, funded by the Alzheimer\u2019s Society and Innovate UK, which has supported them to develop the technology.<\/p>\n

In March, the \u00a31 million grand prize will be awarded to one of the five finalists, who are each developing technology to help people living with dementia.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the pandemic, my mum started to show signs of dementia, and post-pandemic I started to go part-time at work to support her \u2013 me and my siblings all pulled together to look after her,\u201d Matt told PA Real Life.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was living at home on her own at the time, and we were all living two hours away, and each of us have children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenges that arose during that time varied every other week, but when I had that coffee with James, he was asking me the questions everyone asked, like \u2018Oh, why don\u2019t you just get her a smart watch?\u2019<\/p>\n

While there is plenty of tech on the market that can help keep an eye on loved ones living independently with illnesses like dementia \u2013 including wearables and smart home technology \u2013 Matt found these brought their own issues. His mum would forget to wear or charge her smartwatch, which would have alerted them to issues like falls and allow them to keep an eye on her health remotely, while smart home technology like cameras and microphones felt too intrusive for the level of care his mum required.<\/p>\n

With SenS2, they are \u201ctrying to really go beyond that: Make it really usable, really simple to set up, but also provide direct insights to families, so that they\u2019re not having to scrutinise complicated dashboards,\u201d Matt said.<\/p>\n

The technology they have developed involves a single box, which looks similar to a WiFi router, that is plugged-in in one room of the home. From there, the unique sensors can detect movement not only in the room the box is in, but also in adjacent rooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no multiple sensors to pair, there\u2019s no wearable to remember to wear and charge, it\u2019s just the box,\u201d Matt explained.<\/p>\n

With the sensors, it\u2019s possible to observe the person\u2019s regular routines and patterns and see how that routine is changing over time, with families notified via WhatsApp of anything they might need to be aware of.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, we\u2019ve noticed mum got up a lot more than usual last night, and it might be worth checking in with her,\u201d Matt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then as a family carer, I can kind of play Scooby Doo and see what\u2019s caused that, and try and put something in place to try and help mum to sleep better the following night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c(It\u2019s designed to) help the family better understand what\u2019s happening when they\u2019re not there, so that they can respond \u2013 whether it\u2019s trying to make that visit, that phone call,\u201d James added.<\/p>\n

Working alongside a community of 800 people from local carer groups and dementia groups, SenS2\u2019s prototype system is being used by 12 families across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and London.<\/p>\n

It has already helped families determine the right level of care their loved ones require, enabling them not only to shell out on care visits unnecessarily, but also to help the person living with dementia maintain their independence as much as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a family using our system who were looking to bring in professional help for their mum, and they were thinking about getting someone in twice a day,\u201d Matt explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they were able to advocate for mum\u2019s ability to get herself ready in the morning, based on our data. They ended up just bringing the carer in to help support get mum ready for bed: She was able to maintain that independence in the morning and feel like she\u2019s still in control of her morning routine.\u201d<\/p>\n

If they win the Longitude Prize on Dementia, the team will be awarded \u00a31m in funding to bring their technology to a greater number of people. However, up against four other teams also creating brilliant technology that can help support people living with dementia, they believe that \u201cwhoever wins, we\u2019ve got five teams creating technology that really helps address that problem\u201d.<\/p>\n

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… there is plenty of tech<\/span> on the market that can … including wearables and smart home technology<\/span> \u00e2\u0080\u0093 Matt found these brought … remotely, while smart home technology<\/span> like cameras and microphones … dashboards,\u00e2\u0080\u009d Matt said. The technology<\/span> they have developed involves a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}