‘My mum was diagnosed with dementia, so I invented new technology to help her’

Two engineers from Cambridge have developed a device to help people with dementia live independently for longer.

During the Covid pandemic, Dr Matt Ash’s mother began showing signs of dementia, prompting him to reduce his working hours to care for her as her condition deteriorated.

However, he and his siblings – all with families of their own and busy working lives – wished for a way to check on her without needing to physically be there, interrupting her independence.

In 2022, Matt met up with his friend Dr James Brown, whom he had met while studying for a PhD at University College London in the late 2000s, and told him about his mum’s diagnosis.

Both engineers by background, with Matt specialising in medical devices, they believed there must be a way to use technology to help people with dementia maintain their independence, and set to work developing a tool that could help through their start-up, Supersense Technologies.

Thus, SenS2 was born.

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Designed to be an unobtrusive, low-surveillance monitoring system, SenS2 uses sensors from a single, A4-sized box in the home to monitor the routines and habits of people living with dementia, alerting their families when something is out of the ordinary to let them know they might need to pop in to help.

Now, Matt, 39, and James, 42, are finalists in the Longitude Prize on Dementia, funded by the Alzheimer’s Society and Innovate UK, which has supported them to develop the technology.

In March, the £1 million grand prize will be awarded to one of the five finalists, who are each developing technology to help people living with dementia.

“During the pandemic, my mum started to show signs of dementia, and post-pandemic I started to go part-time at work to support her – me and my siblings all pulled together to look after her,” Matt said.

“She was living at home on her own at the time, and we were all living two hours away, and each of us have children.

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“The challenges that arose during that time varied every other week, but when I had that coffee with James, he was asking me the questions everyone asked, like ‘Oh, why don’t you just get her a smart watch?’ I said ‘Well, we tried that, she would forget to wear it or she’d forget to charge it’, and learning new technologies for mum was a real challenge as her symptoms progressed.

“We essentially couldn’t find technology out there to help us. We knew technology could help, but we just couldn’t find anything suitable for mum.”

While there is plenty of tech on the market that can help keep an eye on loved ones living independently with illnesses like dementia – including wearables and smart home technology – Matt found these brought their own issues.

His mum would forget to wear or charge her smartwatch, which would have alerted them to issues like falls and allow them to keep an eye on her health remotely, while smart home technology like cameras and microphones felt too intrusive for the level of care his mum required.

With SenS2, they are “trying to really go beyond that: Make it really usable, really simple to set up, but also provide direct insights to families, so that they’re not having to scrutinise complicated dashboards,” Matt said.

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Every person’s experience with dementia is different, and the men hope that SenS2 provides a lower-surveillance alternative that is both simple to use and provides effective information about the person’s wellbeing.

The technology they have developed involves a single box, which looks similar to a WiFi router, that is plugged into one room of the home. From there, the unique sensors can detect movement not only in the room the box is in, but also in adjacent rooms.

“There’s no multiple sensors to pair, there’s no wearable to remember to wear and charge, it’s just the box,” Matt explained.

With the sensors, it’s possible to observe the person’s regular routines and patterns and see how that routine is changing over time, with families notified via WhatsApp of anything they might need to be aware of.

“For example, we’ve noticed mum got up a lot more than usual last night, and it might be worth checking in with her,” Matt said.

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“And then as a family carer, I can kind of play Scooby Doo and see what’s caused that, and try and put something in place to try and help mum to sleep better the following night.”

“(It’s designed to) help the family better understand what’s happening when they’re not there, so that they can respond – whether it’s trying to make that visit, that phone call,” James added.

“We’re not trying to replace the carer. We’re not a carebot or anything like that!

“We talk to a lot of people who have found themselves as carers, they haven’t necessarily planned on it, they’re not trained in it… It’s (about) trying to help them in that role.”

Working alongside a community of 800 people from local carer groups and dementia groups, SenS2’s prototype system is being used by 12 families across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and London.

It has already helped families determine the right level of care their loved ones require, enabling them not only to shell out on care visits unnecessarily, but also to help the person living with dementia maintain their independence as much as possible.

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“We have a family using our system who were looking to bring in professional help for their mum, and they were thinking about getting someone in twice a day,” Matt explained.

“But they were able to advocate for mum’s ability to get herself ready in the morning, based on our data. They ended up just bringing the carer in to help support get mum ready for bed: She was able to maintain that independence in the morning and feel like she’s still in control of her morning routine.”

If they win the Longitude Prize on Dementia, the team will be awarded £1 million in funding to bring their technology to a greater number of people.

However, up against four other teams also creating brilliant technology that can help support people living with dementia, they believe that “whoever wins, we’ve got five teams creating technology that really helps address that problem”.

To find out more about SenS2, visit: supersensetech.com/sign-up.