Augmenting space: Enhancing health, safety, and well-being of older adults through hybrid spaces

BACKGROUND: As the older adult population in the U.S. continues to grow, it has become a priority to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of these individuals while maintaining their dignity and autonomy. OBJECTIVE: Memory loss and physical impairments have been identified as factors that restrict older adults from living independently. The objectives were (1) to develop a hybrid space within the participants' living environments using an Augmented Reality object location and information system based on visual and spatial organization and (2) to assess the users' perceptions of using such technology. METHOD: Three older adults who had a physical impairment and also suffered mild memory loss participated in the study. These three individuals were provided with the mobile system, and their subjective responses were documented through interviews and a questionnaire. RESULTS: The results of the study suggest that participants found the system very useful and easy to use. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study suggest that the older adults who took part in the study were very open to the idea of using such an AR object location and information system based on visual and spatial organization hosted on electronic mobile devices to enhance their living environments.