BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Technical Field

This invention relates generally to event notification systems, and particularly to an event notification and time awareness system for persons with cognitive impairment that may be managed by a caretaker remotely.

State of the Art

Persons with cognitive impairment may have trouble remembering, learning new things, concentrating, or making decisions that affect their everyday lives. Millions of people throughout the world are living with cognitive impairment, and the number is increasing.

Many people with cognitive impairment want to maintain as much independence as possible in their daily living. Also, providing 24-hour care by a caretaker is often impractical or financially prohibitive. Many people with cognitive impairment have difficulty remembering appointments, or even basic events related to routine daily living, such as taking medications, eating, showering, brushing teeth, going to bed, and the like. Many such people are unable to use conventional time indication systems, such as clocks, calendars, timepieces, or mobile phones, and the like, because they are difficult to read or require cognitive abilities that are impaired in such people. Furthermore, many people with cognitive impairment have difficulty utilizing the concept of time as known by others with no cognitive impairment. For such people, traditional time as displayed on a clock may no longer be meaningful. For example, they may be able to state the current time and the time of an upcoming event but still have no real concept of the duration of time to pass between. They may be constantly anxious about meal times or upcoming activities. They may be awake in the middle of the night and unwilling to go back to sleep, unaware of how much nighttime still remains. They may call loved ones in the middle of the night because the time on the clock no longer signals that it is time for them and others to be asleep.

Accordingly, what is needed is an event notification and time awareness system to replace the conceptual framework of time displayed on a clock, that helps people with cognitive impairment to determine their current position within their daily schedule, that is simple to use by a user with cognitive impairment and that may be managed by a caretaker remotely.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to event notification systems, and particularly to an event notification and time awareness system for persons with cognitive impairment for helping them determine their current position within their daily schedule, that may be managed by a caretaker remotely.

The system may include a caretaker computing device coupled to a computer server and a user notification device also coupled to the computer server. The user notification device may be configured to hang on a wall, or rest on a support surface, such as a table, or a shelf or the like, or it may be configured to be worn by a user, such as by attachment to the user's body or clothing. The user notification device may be contained within a box having a display window for viewing a display screen of the device, wherein containment of the user notification device within the box prevents the user from powering off the device or changing settings of the device inadvertently. The box may be configured to hang on a wall, or rest on a support surface, such as a table, or a shelf or the like.

A caretaker computing device may run a caretaker application to send signals including event information to the computer server corresponding to caretaker input to the caretaker computing device. The computer server may be programmed to receive a signal including event information from the caretaker computing device, automatically process the event information, and send an event notification signal to the user notification device in accordance with the event information, wherein the event information is displayed on the display of the user notification device.

The system allows for a caretaker, such as a family member, a friend, a guardian, a nurse, or the like to enter event information into the caretaker computing device that is relevant to a user. The user may be a person with cognitive impairment that may have difficulty remembering appointments, or even basic events related to routine daily living, such as taking medications, eating, showering, brushing teeth, going to bed, and the like. Such persons may be unable to conceive of the passing of time or be cognitive of the current time relative to the entire day, for example. Event notifications are displayed on the user notification device to remind the user of such appointments and other events of daily living according to the information entered by the caretaker into the caretaker computing device.

Furthermore, it is an object of a preferred embodiment of the present invention to give a user having cognitive impairment perspective of his or her place in time relative to an entire day. For example, without limitation, a daily schedule may be displayed on a user notification device, wherein time increments, such as hourly increments, may be displayed in a column or a row, with corresponding events displayed by each time increment. Different colors may be used to highlight different types of events displayed on the user notification device. For example, without limitation, in a preferred embodiment, sleep time may be highlighted in gray, suggesting the darkness of night, while normal daily activities are highlighted in yellow, suggesting the brightness of day. Meal times may be highlighted in green and special events may be highlighted in red, although other colors or combinations thereof may be used. A translucent screen, such as a grayed-out box image (hereinafter referred to as a “TimeScreen”), having a leading edge corresponding to the current time of day that moves across the daily schedule, may gradually cover the schedule as events pass, leaving future events uncovered, while still allowing past events to be read through the translucent TimeScreen. The leading edge of the TimeScreen thereby distinguishes past events from future events, in a dramatically effective manner, to help persons with cognitive impairment or without time awareness to determine their position in time relative to the daily schedule.

In some embodiments, the status of the user notification device is communicated to the caretaker computing device by the computer server and displayed on the caretaker computing device in response to status signals sent to the computer server by the user notification device, wherein the status includes information regarding whether the user application is running and what information is being displayed on the display of the user notification device. The caretaker may thereby confirm that the user application device is being used correctly by the user.

In some embodiments, the event information may include a daily routine, wherein the daily routine is a plurality of daily activities, wherein display of each of the plurality of daily activities on the user notification device is repeated daily until terminated or modified by the computer server in response to a signal from the caretaker computing device. For example, a standard-day template, including routine sleep and wake times, meal times, and other regular daily activities, may be stored in the memory of the user notification device. The standard-day template may then be modified by the computer server, in response to signals received from the caretaker computing device.

The foregoing and other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following more detailed description of the particular embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

