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A Conversational Independent Living Assistant for Cognitive Impairments

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Army
Contract: W81XWH-08-C-0740
Agency Tracking Number: O082-H06-3171
Amount: $749,987.00
Phase: Phase II
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: OSD08-H06
Solicitation Number: 2008.2
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2008
Award Year: 2009
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2009-08-20
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2012-01-31
Small Business Information
650 Castro Street Suite 120, PMB 197
Mountain View, CA 94041
United States
DUNS: 808269588
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Richard Levinson
 President
 (650) 494-2002
 rich@brainaid.com
Business Contact
 Richard Levinson
Title: President
Phone: (650) 494-2002
Email: rich@brainaid.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

Conversation between a patient and their human caregiver is important for building the patient’s trust and acceptance of the helper. This may also be true for electronic cognitive assistants. Human caregivers also function independently from the patient. Electronic cognitive aids simply echo the user''s schedule back, but human caregivers think independently about when and what to say. We propose a conversational caregiver''s assistant in a mobile phone to help veterans with cognitive impairment. Patients speak with the CARE Agent as if they were speaking with a caregiver on a phone. The CARE agent and patient use dialogue to resolve questions and learn preferences, building the user’s trust and acceptance of device. We are extending a commercial cognitive aid already being used by the VA, by adding physiological sensors and a conversational interface. The CARE agent provides context-aware conversational interventions, talking with users during ADLs, PTSD homework and in-vivo exposure sessions, and collecting experience sampling and biosensor data for therapists to determine if patient should move to the next level of the exposure hierarchy. Anticipated benefits include increased user independence and reduced long-term caregiver costs. Our Medical Advisory Board includes VA neuropsychologists who will provide guidance about clinical and commercial considerations.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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