Artificial intelligence helped people with dementia visualize childhood memories
Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2024 9:29 am
Pau Garcia, founder of the design studio Domestic Data Streamers in Barcelona, has proposed using artificial intelligence to visualize the past. Using image generators, he has helped patients in the early stages of dementia create frames of their memories.
As the charity Alzheimer Scotland notes, for some people with dementia, childhood memories are the only way to get in touch with their own identity.
When Pau Garcia began experimenting with image generators Bulk SMS Lebanon like DALL-E, he was approached by a friend. She asked him to create an image of her playing with her father, who had died when she was little. She was moved by the result, and Garcia by her reaction.
He and his colleagues began discussing the technology’s potential with anyone who would listen. Soon, a social worker from a nursing home came to the studio and proposed an idea: helping elderly patients with dementia visualize childhood memories.
The GIF above is a “synthetic memory” that Garcia and his team created for a 96-year-old Catalan woman in the early stages of dementia. It shows her standing with her mother on a balcony overlooking La Modelo, a prison in central Barcelona. Her father, who was a political prisoner during the Franco dictatorship, was there. From this balcony, he could be seen through a prison window.
Garcia and his colleagues only worked with patients in the early stages of dementia, who could better understand how the images were generated and how they differed from real photos and videos. Before creating synthetic memories, the team demonstrated how the technology worked. The photo below shows Garcia (right) during one of these visits.
As the charity Alzheimer Scotland notes, for some people with dementia, childhood memories are the only way to get in touch with their own identity.
When Pau Garcia began experimenting with image generators Bulk SMS Lebanon like DALL-E, he was approached by a friend. She asked him to create an image of her playing with her father, who had died when she was little. She was moved by the result, and Garcia by her reaction.
He and his colleagues began discussing the technology’s potential with anyone who would listen. Soon, a social worker from a nursing home came to the studio and proposed an idea: helping elderly patients with dementia visualize childhood memories.
The GIF above is a “synthetic memory” that Garcia and his team created for a 96-year-old Catalan woman in the early stages of dementia. It shows her standing with her mother on a balcony overlooking La Modelo, a prison in central Barcelona. Her father, who was a political prisoner during the Franco dictatorship, was there. From this balcony, he could be seen through a prison window.
Garcia and his colleagues only worked with patients in the early stages of dementia, who could better understand how the images were generated and how they differed from real photos and videos. Before creating synthetic memories, the team demonstrated how the technology worked. The photo below shows Garcia (right) during one of these visits.