A Japanese company has developed a highly innovative device in the form of GPS shoes to prevent elderly family members with Alzheimer’s getting lost.
In the world, many elderly people are struggling with symptoms of senile dementia or its most common type, Alzheimer’s. It often includes intense disorientation. Sometimes, Alzheimer’s patients can lose their sense of space-time context and feel lost even in their own homes.
When elderly people with such conditions begin to progressively lose their ability to orient themselves, they need someone to look out for them. While constantly feeling confused and mentally disoriented, they often become victims of severe anxiety as well.
As the World Health Organization (WHO) states, there are currently 50 million people suffering from dementia worldwide. Moreover, there are nearly 10 million new cases every year. Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most common form of dementia, may contribute to 60–70% of these cases.
Oftentimes, Alzheimer’s patients tend to wander away from their house without even realizing it.
Luckily, there might be a solution to this problem.
Japanese inventors once again have come up with a solution to such serious problems people deal on a daily basis.
The Japanese company Wish Hills has invented a GPS device that can be inserted into the elderly people’s shoes and track their movements, as WTVideo reports. Therefore, whenever a person with some kind of mental disorientation leaves the house, even without informing anyone, the GPS device will notify their family or carers of their current location.
This highly innovative device is designed specifically to help the elderly who suffer from senile dementia or Alzheimer’s to find their way home if they ever get lost. What’s more, it also helps their family or healthcare assistants to find them by being alerted of the place they are in real-time terms.
While someone might say that today’s smartphones already have inserted GPS systems in them, we cannot argue with the fact that people suffering from this unrelenting disease may not be able to use their smart devices properly. That’s why the new Japanese invention could be far more effective. In other words, losing your phone can be quite easier than losing your shoes.
The shoe GPS device sends a notification to the smartphone of a relative who looks out for an Alzheimer’s patient.
This way, they will be able to locate the patient through a map that can be viewed directly on the smartphone or a computer. The developers working on the project have designed it to send notifications when the elderly person moves 165 ft (50 m), 328 ft (100 m), or 1640 ft (500 m) away from home.
Currently, the GPS shoes are available only on the Japanese market. The price, nearly $300, is also not quite affordable. However, the news of this device can lead to other similar inventions that will help the elderly all around the world to live a safer, calmer, and happier life.
