This app will help dementia patients in restoring memories

In a one of its kind initiative, a smartphone app would now help the people suffering from Alzheimer's and other forms of age-related dementia.

Developed by a group of Cornell students, the app named 'Remember me' will enable the patients to store the important events of their life and details about the known ones.

Venkataramaiah, one of the creators of the app, shared their inspiration behind the innovation, saying: "We found that each one of us at some point of time had interacted with the people, who suffer memory loss. So, we thought we should build something that would help bring back memories."

The app is to be installed on the phones of the patients and caregivers. Using GPS tracking and a connection to the cloud, the app can flash an alert to the patients when anyone amongst the group members is nearby.

The app further reveals the identity of the person and his relationship with the patient. It displays a slideshow of previously uploaded pictures. If the patient receives a text or phone call from someone registered in the app, a screen pops up with similar information.

Once a conversation begins, the app can assist with reminders based on stored facts and previous conversations, perhaps suggesting the questions to ask based on information it has about life events.

The app was demonstrated at the 123rd annual conference of the American Society for Engineering Education held at Cornell.