For the PhD research of Myrte Thoolen at the TU/e we created Living Moments (LiMo), a post-card style messaging system. Through an online app, family and friends of the user can send messages to a relative suffering from dementia, that has the LiMo device at home. These messages can consist of (a combination of) video, photo’s, text and audio recordings. LiMo will print a postcard with a snapshot of the message as well as a unique QR code. Placing the postcard in the mobile part of LiMo will automatically play the media attached to the message, video, photo and audio and allow the user to record a reply, in either a photograph, audio recording, text or emoji. Living Moments aims to bridge the modern digital communications with the ‘oldfashioned’ postcard and making vice versa communication easily accessible for those with limited digital skills.

We developed the complete system for four sets of Living Moments. The system consists of both an online app, a printer unit and a portable device. The app is designed to work on mobile devices (phone, tablet) and in the browser. The printer uses a Raspberry Pi and a portable inkjet printer, while the mobile device is based on an Android tablet combined with a microprocessor to handle various sensors and actuators. All system communicate both via bluetooth and wifi.

More information on the project is available at livingmoments.nl