Echoes Around The Home

Echoes Around The Home is a cross disciplinary project conceived and led by Dr Nicholas Firth, UCL Computer Science Research Associate and member of UCL's Centre for Medical Image Computing (CMIC).

In the last two years, major advances in voice recognition have led to an increasing number of people using voice-controlled devices in their homes. The Amazon Echo is currently the most popular voice-controlled device in the home, with 5.1 million devices sold by November 2016.

The Echo’s features include responding to commands and questions to carry out such actions as to playing music, reading an audiobook and reciting calendar appointments. The cheapest model is currently £50.

Dr Firth – with social scientist collaborators Prof. Mary Pat Sullivan (Nipissing University Applied and Professional Studies) and Emma Harding (UCL Institute of Neurology), neuropsychologist Prof. Sebastian Crutch (UCL Institute of Neurology) and computer scientist Prof. Daniel Alexander (UCL Computer Science) – will trial the use of the Amazon Echo by people living with dementia.

The aim is to increase independence and wellbeing by providing simplified access to entertainment, diaries and knowledge, whilst also acting as a means for data collection to monitor disease progression. This project has been funded by a Social Science Plus+ award from The Collaborative Social Science Domain UCL and will begin installing Echo’s in late March.

For this study, people with Posterior Cortical Atrophy, a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease which primarily affects visual perception, and a caregiver, will be asked to install and use the Amazon Echo at home. During the study, technical support will be available to ensure that the Echo is properly installed and there are no technical barriers to its use.

Subscriptions to music streaming services and audiobooks, and access to smart lights which can be turned on using voice commands will be offered. If people already have smart televisions installed in the home, voice commands will be offered for these too.

Short interviews carried out before using the Echo will measure independence and use of home technology and a similar interview after the study will provide details of how practices may have changed. Using the Echo’s recordings, the project will use computational analysis techniques to describe the content and accuracy of interactions with the Echo.

The team involved hope that these analyses will enable us to measure subtle changes in memory and verbal skills over a prolonged period within the home.

For further information about this study, or for further details of involvement please see http://antenna-ds.co.uk/projects.html.