Fighting dementia, smoking without the smoke
Reported January 11, 2009
Las Vegas Technology meant to improve health and well-being featured at the Consumer Electronics Show hint at new approaches to old problems.
For the smoker who can’t kick the habit, the aging boomer worried about the onset of dementia, or someone just looking to relax, an array of gadgets promise to help people live better, longer.
Dementia is a problem that threatens to explode as the population ages and Baby Boomers move through their 70s and 80s. About one in four people over 70 develops some form of dementia, the symptoms of which can include memory loss, impaired cognitive and language skills, easy agitation and even seeing things that aren’t there.
Research shows that keeping the brain engaged in cognitive activity can help ward off the onset and impact of dementia, something that Dakim, Inc. aims to do a game system that provides what chief executive Dan Michel calls “senior-centric dedicated brain fitness.”
“We developed this to provide broadly based cognitive exercise in six cognitive domains in five levels,” that automatically adjust to keep the user engaged, Mr. Michel said.
While that may sound similar to the puzzle, pattern, word and number games found in the popular Brain Age series for Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s handheld DS video game device, Mr. Michel is quick to dispel any notion that his Santa Monica, Calif., company’s BrainFitness is the same.
“A handheld device, a tiny little thing that uses a stylus and has a tiny screen is not senior-centric – ours is senior-centric,” Mr. Michel said.
Instead, the system, about the size of a desktop computer, employs a touch screen that lets users interact directly with the training program, rather than through a keyboard or other input device. Games and software updates for the Linux-based system are automatically loaded through broadband Internet connection. For institutions, one unit costs $6,000 (U.S.), plus $100 a month for up to 20 users. Home users can rent the BrainFitness hardware for about $25, with a $50 monthly subscription.
HeartMath LLC’s emWave biofeedback device is designed to train people to reduce their stress levels. The $199 unit, smaller than a deck of cards, monitors a user’s heart rate by means of a thumb sensor or wired ear clip, and guides users through breathing exercises timed to the pulsing of a strip of LEDs.
The Boulder, Creek, Calif., company also offers a desktop PC version of the system that provides graphing and other more detailed feedback.
MedSignals also tries to alter people’s behaviour with its electronic cigarette case.
“People think quitting smoking is a linear process, and it’s not,” said Jerome Hahn, MedSignal’s executive vice president. “People smoke very differently day to day.”
The SmokeSignals case logs each time that it is opened and a cigarette removed. After a week, the smoker uploads his or her smoking behaviour profile to the San Antonio, Tex., company’s server, which returns a new pattern to the $149 device. The case then beeps and flashes to indicate when it is time to smoke, gradually altering and reducing smoking times.
In contrast, TSC Group, LLC, offers its NJoy electronic smokeless cigarette to health-conscious smokers who don’t want to quit.
The watch battery-powered cylinder, which looks similar to an ordinary cigarette – including an LED tip that flares as a smoker takes a drag – vaporizes a tiny packet of a nicotine and flavoured water solution, creating a heated mist that is drawn into the lungs.
What the smoker exhales is water vapour without the tar and other carcinogenic particles that come from burning tobacco, according to spokesman Matt Maher.
Last September, the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, said in a written statement that it knew of “no rigorous, peer-reviewed studies” that showed electronic cigarettes are safe or effective as a nicotine replacement therapy.