Picgo: A reminiscence physical-digital photo annotation service for the elderly

Purpose: Reminiscence is an important element of many interpersonal activities, especially for the elderly living with dementia. Photographs from the past serve as typical aids providing tangible prompts in reminiscence therapy¹. Multiple studies have implemented the concepts of reminiscence and sharing experiences, such as Share Pic² and MEMENTO³. Storing, reusing and reorganizing old photographs on paper is difficult for certain participants in group therapies. Caregivers usually lack a personal memory profile for elderly patients to use as part of therapeutic biography. This paper presents the design of a service known as Picgo, a game-based reminiscence service that enables elders to scan photos, annotate photos and share them with family on social networks. The goal of this design is to provide a service that encourages the elderly to digitize old photos and implement reminiscence therapy during the process. The annotated photos were organized into a personal memory profile for future personal rehabilitation activities. Method: Picgo is a reminiscence service based on the concept of a bingo game. The intention is to provide elderly people with dementia and their caregivers the ability to operate Picgo together on an iPad. After scanning their personal photos, the elderly will answer a series of five questions about each photo: "What? When? Where? Why? and Who?", and the caregiver leads the elderly person to pick corresponding tags. The elderly person can choose from one or more options in the suggested tags, and then annotate the photos with tags (Figures 1 & 2). The suggested tags were created by the elderly persons themselves or their family members. Then the tags are enriched through finding similar concepts of Concept Net⁴ or selecting co-appearance tags from other photos. Ultimately, the annotated photo can be shared with family members and friends and/or uploaded to the server to establish a personal memory profile. Results & Discussion: The prototype of Picgo has been successfully implemented. By annotating tags with the five 'W' questions (above), the tags can be sorted into different groups and categories and different albums can be established based on those groups, such as family, friends, hobbies, travel, food, and events. The system can cross analyse the relationships between the tags, and provide caregivers with recommended sources for use in reminiscence therapy. The preliminary result is that by matching tags with other elderly people, the system can suggest suitable photos and albums for reminiscence activities. The memory profile may provide important personal experiences for caregivers, which allows them to review and also prepare for future rehabilitation activities for the elderly person.