A Virtual Reality At Home Intervention for People Living with Dementia

The goal of the current study is to design and evaluate a virtual reality (VR) at-home intervention to facilitate communication between persons living with dementia (PLwD) and their family/friend care partners, and in turn improve their interpersonal relationships and quality of life. The project also aims to provide a direct comparison of an immersive VR system with non-immersive tablet-based technology. PLwD and care partner interactions will be recorded during each of the following sessions and then used for the primary measure of verbal and non-verbal communication. * Picture Book condition (baseline): PLwD and care partner view pictures together on photo album * VR condition: PLwD watch 360 degree videos on a VR and the care partner watches the same content concurrently on a paired tablet * Table-Only condition: PLwD and care partner watch 360 videos together on the tablet