Haptic Remembrance Book

While having strong social networks is essential for good quality of life, socializing gets more difficult as we age even if we are surrounded by people in a nursing home setting. Care staff and family members want to be able to connect with residents/loved ones but have limitations (time constraints, unsure how), and it can be challenging to feel a connection to another resident who has differing abilities. We propose that through sharing strong positive memories, members of a nursing home community (residents, care staff, and families) will be able to build empathy for one another and thus strengthen their community bonds. By applying multi-modal technologies to a familiar medium, the book, we provided a means by which intergenerational users, from various backgrounds, could interact with and gain meaning from the content.