ARIADE : Augmented Reality for Improving Autonomy in Dementia

Navigating according to a specific goal is a common activity of everyday life. Spatial navigation requires the implementation of motor and perceptual functions (sight, walking, proprioception), but also various cognitive functions (executive functions, memory, spatial orientation skills). Many people affected by a neurodegenerative disease have topographical difficulties which have a major impact on their autonomy in daily life, by gradually limiting their movements outside their home, then inside their home, and which are the main factor leading to the institutionalization of this population. People with dementia or MCI (Mild Cognitive Impairment) of the Alzheimer type, according to the definition of the NIAA (National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association) have navigation and spatial memory disorders, with difficulty in acquiring mental spatial representations of their environment. These topographical difficulties have been shown to be related to the reduction in volume of the temporal cortex, in particular the hippocampal regions, as well as to atrophy of the retrosplenial cortex. Augmented Reality (AR), often defined as an intermediary between the totally artificial world of VR and the real world in which we operate, makes it possible in particular to add summary information to the natural environment in which a participant operates. Even if, in particular in outside environment, AR must solve many challenges, such as the integration of the real and virtual worlds in real time, the selection of the modalities of restitution of information, its use is exponential in the medical field, in particular in surgery for the assistance of the practitioner, but also in the field of sensory substitution, in particular to facilitate the movements of people with visual impairment. Other works focused in helping people with dementia of the Alzheimer type, such as those of Quintana and Favela (2012) who proposed preliminary systems of annotations in AR. Hervás et al. wer