Cell phone software aiding name recall

Senior citizens often find it difficult to remember names. This paper describes a novel cell phone application that uses information about one's social network and the places one frequents to suggest the names of individuals one might plausibly encounter in a particular place. We anticipate that this "names prosthesis" will help senior citizens to improve socialization, functional memory and levels of autonomy. We motivate the need for this application space before describing our design process, first implementations, and early testing and iterative improvement of both the concept and the implementation. Keywords Cognitive prosthetics, cognitive aids, cell phones, mobile applications, name recall. ACM Classification Keywords H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): Miscellaneous. The Name Recall Problem In a study of 1,205 adults, Crook and West [4] found that people's ability to remember names declines across the lifespan, affecting older adults ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Kent Fenwick, Michael Massimi, Ronald Baecker, Sandra Black, Kevin Tonon, Cosmin Munteanu, Elizabeth Rochon, David Ryan
• Keywords: CHI 2009, Computer Science University, Human Computer Interaction, Rochon Toronto Rehab, Toronto Toronto