Interactive Plush Therapeutic Apparatus for Dementia Care
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Solution Overview
Problem
Dementia patients often cannot benefit from animal-assisted therapy due to stress, operational feasibility issues, allergies, and immune system concerns, necessitating a more accessible and adaptable therapeutic solution.
Innovation Solution
A digitally-interactive plush body therapeutic apparatus with sensor components, modular design, and antimicrobial features that simulates animal interactions, providing tactile, auditory, and visual stimulation, and monitoring patient behavior to offer personalized therapeutic benefits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If real therapy animals are used for dementia patients, then therapeutic benefits are provided, but stress and operational feasibility issues arise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a robotic replica of a therapy animal that copies the essential therapeutic functions and behaviors of real animals. The robotic animal includes sensors to detect patient interactions and actuators to provide appropriate responses, thereby providing consistent therapeutic benefits without the operational complexities of living animals.
Solution Approach 2:
The robotic animal serves as an intermediary between the patient and the therapeutic intervention. It mediates the interaction by providing a controllable, predictable interface that delivers therapeutic benefits while eliminating the stress and management issues associated with real animals.
2Reliability
If real therapy animals are used, then social interaction is improved, but allergies and immune system concerns prevent usage
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic animal provides a synthetic copy of the social interaction experience that real animals provide. It uses sensors and actuators to simulate animal behaviors and responses, delivering the same therapeutic social interaction benefits without any biological materials that could trigger allergies or immune reactions.
3Reliability
If a large number of pets are provided in care facilities, then therapeutic benefits increase, but operational feasibility decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic animal replaces multiple real animals with a single or limited number of robotic units. Each robotic animal is equipped with sensors and actuators that enable it to provide therapeutic interactions independently, thereby scaling therapeutic benefits without proportionally increasing operational complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The robotic animal is designed to operate autonomously using onboard sensors to detect patient interactions and actuators to provide appropriate responses. This self-service capability eliminates the need for staff to manage and care for multiple animals, significantly reducing operational complexity while maintaining therapeutic benefits.
4Reliability
If real therapy animals are used, then emotional support is provided, but stress from animal demands increases
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic animal copies the emotional support functions of real animals through programmed behaviors and sensor-actuator responses. It can detect patient states and provide appropriate emotional responses without having its own needs or demands, thereby eliminating stress while maintaining emotional support quality.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for a therapeutic apparatus that includes an external casing of a first therapeutic apparatus, wherein the external casing comprises of a plush body, the external casing comprising at least one compartment; a therapeutic module system that comprises of a set of interaction devices and a wireless communication system, wherein the therapeutic module system may be removably oriented into the at least one compartment; the set of interaction devices comprising of: sensing inputs that comprise of a auditory sensing system, a haptic sensing system, an olfaction sensing system, and other biosensing systems, and output systems that comprise of at least an auditory feedback and haptic feedback systems; and a processing system that comprises configuration to assess the state of a subject through the sensing inputs and control the output systems in response to the sensing inputs.