Even royalty can appreciate the rich rewards tor seniors (including those with dementia) who engage with OM Interactive’smotion-activated projection systems!
On a recent visit to a British nursing home, Kate Middleton had an opportunity to try out and learn about this state-of-the-art interactive technology that is being used to enrich the lives of the home’s residents.
The blueblood of its kind, the Mobii offers all kinds of applications — ranging from interactive puzzles to simulated painting, social games and memory-stimulating music and nostalgia — that bring a host of cognitive, emotional, social and physical rewards to users.
The Princess of Wales got to see the system in action when she toured the facility and played virtual football using the Mobii with one of the home’s residents.
The Omi Mobii is a very exciting and popular addition to our nursing home, and we are really thrilled to show off this new product to her Royal Highness,” said Amanda McMahon, registered manager of the Oxford House Nursing Home in Slough, England.
“The Mobii provides residents with physical stimulation, memory recall, social engagement, and is lots of fun,” she added.
OM Interactive’s motion-activated technology is packed full of features that make this interactive device all the more engaging, beneficial and easy to use for seniors, including long-term-care residents and community program participants.
To help you better take advantage of all of the system’s compelling features, SensoryOne now offers what we call our “concierge service.” It’s our way of helping you to personalize this technology and package its programming to suit your needs, making no additional work for your already time-crunched staff.
While other systems come with a limited number of applications, OMI’s groundbreaking and award-winning technology (including the most popular Mobii Magic Surface model) offers hundreds of applications, ranging from nature interactions to physical agility games, mental stimulation activities to imaginative music content. Also on offer is a “Care Suite” targeted to older adults, including those with dementia.
The choice is huge, but the system offers the ability to sift through the applications to create different “folders” of pre-set programming that may be targeted to individuals or groups of users, or types of activities.
For instance, you could create a folder full of popular “splat” games that are fun, engaging and encourage strong social connections.
Or maybe you want to trigger memories for a particular user. You could create a folder including photos of that person’s family and friends, fellow residents and staff, special celebrations attended and familiar local landmarks. Such therapeutic content brings many positive emotional benefits.
Interested in creating such content but don’t have the time to devote to putting it together? That’s where we come in.
With the concierge service, when you purchase an OMI interactive, motion-activated projection system, we’ll do the work for you.
Just tell us what themes you want, what kind of material you’d like to include, and how long you want the contents of a folder to run, and we’ll pick and put in the right applications for you.
Want to make a folder with special meaning? Send us the photos, videos, music and other content you want included, and we’ll have it ready for you in no time.
As easy as this technology is to use, it can be made even easier. In fact, it can actually operate on autoplay, meaning there is no need for employees, who are already facing so many overwhelming challenges, to be on hand to run a session.
No work for you or your staff, but lots of beneficial play for users!
And you can be sure that those who interact with OMI’s motion-activated systems will be transported on dynamic, captivating, stimulating and broadening journeys of discovery.
Virtual reality technology is all the rage, and the latest advance, known as the Broomx MK360, offers great rewards to users of all ages, especially those with special needs. That ranges from older adults, including those with dementia, living in long-term-care to younger people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Fully immersive VR experience: no headset required!
This device, newly available in North America from its manufacturer in Spain, creates a fully immersive experience without the need for VR headsets.
And while other similar technology requires multiple projectors, the Broomx is the only fully mobile, all-in-one unit. It projects a video that stretches across three walls and onto the ceiling, creating a captivating experience within a user’s entire field of vision. The BroomX is accompanied by more than 100 different 360-degree videos, and can project additional videos, for instance, those taken at home or at a particular event that might have special meaning to those watching.
Among the included videos, imagine, for instance, sitting amid a pod of dolphins watching them swim all around you, splashing and creating waves, and listening to them whistle and click.
Or how about virtually forest bathing — lying in a bed of sun-dappled autumn leaves in the woods, birds chirping in the background.
With no need for headsets, users of the Broomx have less chance of experiencing eye strain or “cybersickness,” a form of motion sickness in response to virtual environments. Many people also find headsets uncomfortable to wear. People with dementia or ASD might resist wearing them.
Improved cognitive function, memory stimulation
VR technology like the BroomX offers a virtual experience that is not only entertaining but engaging cognitively, emotionally and socially. It brings many rewards to users, ranging from lifting moods to creating feelings of calm and relaxation, as well as improving cognitive function, stimulating memory and reducing chronic and acute pain.
Recent research using the Broomx studied the impact of immersive technologies on people with Alzheimer’s disease and moderate to severe dementia living in long-term-care facilities.
In this study, 325 participants from three long-term-care homes enjoyed VR experiences such as being transported to a lush green park to see the cherry blossoms in bloom, being taken to the heart of a bustling city, and finding themselves surrounded by dairy cows in a farmer’s field.
These experiences were not only entertaining but engaging cognitively, emotionally and socially. The research found that residents who used the BroomX were relatively calmer, happier and more relaxed afterwards. Time with the BroomX projections also lifted moods, stimulated memory, improved both appetites and eating among underweight residents, and led to increased conversations and better sleep among all participants.
Study participants cut psychotropic medications
One of the most notable findings of the study, known as The Albert Project and conducted by Primacare Living Solutions with partners including the Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation (CABHI), was a 30-per-cent reduction in the use of psychotropic medications to treat participants’ responsive behaviours. To learn more about the results found in The Albert Project study, please click to watch the video below.
VR tools help comfort those with ASD
VR technology has also proven helpful in dealing with the sensory, attention, behaviour, and communication challenges faced by people with ASD, to help them better connect with the people and the around them.
For instance, therapists have used VR exposure therapy to help people become more comfortable in some situations, such as being outdoors. Immersing them first in a virtual park makes it less stressful for them to make the transition to a real park. Similarly, VR technology has been used to help combat phobias.
The Broomx is sold exclusively in North America by SensoryOne, which distributes innovative, award-winning and inspiring sensory products and multisensory environments customized to the individual needs of users.
Interacting with the groundbreaking and award-winningmotion-activated projection systems produced by Britain-based OM Interactive can bring many rewards to users of all ages and all levels, particularly those with special needs.
And the experience can be enhanced by digging into an activity kit that accompanies all purchases of any OMI system, including the Mobii Magic Surface, known, for short, as the Mobii.
This goodie bag, filled with accessories including paintbrushes, balls, bean bags and soft fabric batons, can be used with a wide variety of applications, and in a number of different ways.
An activity kit for the Mobii Magic Surface
Adding the use of any or all of these items not only offers more ways to have fun with an OMI system, but can also increase tactile sensations, improve extended reach and shoulder range of motion, boost concentration, and, overall, elevate engagement.
With some swipes of the accessory paintbrushes, users could turn a variety of images, such as flowers or butterflies, from black and white into vivid colours.
Or a bean bag could be tossed onto a projection of an egg, causing it to crack wide open.
With an accessory baton, a user could break up and scatter a school of fish in one application, or swipe correct answers to quizzes in another.
The accessory ball could be pitched at floating feathers to break them up and make them flutter away.
A week of “theme days” could be created to vary up activities. For instance, one day could be devoted to applications that can use a bean bag; another day could turn to activities using a ball.
The accessories can be used to enhance the projections in many ways. One idea is to create “theme days” throughout the week. For instance, a calendar using the Mobii could look like this:
Mindful Mondays: Have participants use the accessory kit paintbrush to colour in a series of fish.
Tuesday tosses: Create some fun competition by having participants toss bean bags onto underwater targets and add up the points for a winning score.
Wet and wild Wednesdays: Participants can use a magnetized rod to go fishing in a virtual body of water.
Thursday throws: Roll a ball across a virtual xylophone, eliciting different sounds as it crosses various keys.
Friday fun facts: Create fun across the generations with bright and simple quizzes that engage both young and old.
Letting imaginations and creativity run free will guarantee users a fun, engaging and beneficial experience with the combination of the projection system and the accompanying activity kit!
When it comes to technology, jokes abound about how seniors interact with it.
But, all laughs aside, the latest advances in technology can offer huge rewards to older adults who are living in retirement and long-term-care homes or attending day programs. They can be especially beneficial to seniors with special needs, including those with dementia.
When seniors interact with these groundbreaking, innovative and state-of-the-art devices, they can receive a remarkable array of mental, physical, social and emotional benefits.
INTERACTIVE AND IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES
The technologies include a pioneering, award-winning, interactive motion-activated projection systemfrom a British company called OM Interactive.
It beams sounds, images and music from a wide variety of applications onto different surfaces, including tables, floors, ceilings, even bedside tray tables or bedsheets.
The device is accompanied by hundreds of applications, including various activities and games, that are projected. When users interact with them, they are transported on a variety of dynamic, engaging, stimulating and broadening journeys of discovery.
The other remarkable piece of equipment is the latest advance in virtual reality technology, called the BroomX MK360. Made in Spain, this all-in-one VR system beams a video that stretches across three walls and onto a ceiling all at once, creating a captivating, fully immersive audio and visual experience.
Being surrounded on all sides and wherever your head can turn makes you feel like you are right in the moment, gripping the senses of both seeing and hearing. The BroomX virtual experience is not only entertaining but engaging cognitively, emotionally and socially.
Both of these technologies can help foster great joy among older adults, significantly enhancing their overall health and quality of life. Here are seven ways technologies can nurture happiness in older users, which you can learn about by watching the video below, and/or reading the text below it.
STIMULATING THE SENSES
Both technologies deliver multisensory experiences, and stimulating the senses, especially visual and auditory, can be a powerful conduit to joy.
Imagine, for instance, being at a beach, gazing into deep blue water up to the horizon and listening to the rhythmic lapping of waves.
You could heighten the experience by adding in the use of other senses. For instance, what about having a real seashell beside you to touch, or a cool beverage to sip. Some aromatherapy using a diffuser to the fragrance emanating from a real plant could perk up the sense of smell.
VIRTUAL TOURISM
The secondway this technology can be used to foster joy is through what might be called “virtual tourism.”
For older people unable to really travel, whether because of restricted mobility, limited financial resources or other reasons, creating a simulated trip through these technologies could be the next best thing to being there!
Both the interactive, motion-activated and VR systems can open the world to seniors, taking them to new places for new experiences or returning to destinations they have already been to, reliving memorable past experiences that made them smile and will do so again.
The study found participants had a decrease in anxiety and an increase in happiness and excitement.
As an added benefit, caregivers can also take a much-needed virtual holiday, and enjoy the rewards of relaxation away from their daily workload.
BRINGING NATURE INDOORS
A third way this technology can promote joy is by bringing nature indoors.
We all know the exhilaration created by being in the great outdoors. For people whose access to nature is restricted by their health or mobility limitations, these technologies can bring the outdoors in.
Participants can experience simulated experiences in nature, standing in a forest, watching trees sway, light dapple among the treetops and birds fly, and listening to the chirping of those birds or whistling winds.
From these sensory experiences created indoors, participants can derive the same benefits as if they were really outdoors.
SOCIAL CONNECTIONS
These technologies can also promote social connections, both among fellow home residents and with staff.
It’s often much more fun to have joint experiences than solitary ones: the confidence built by the encouragement of others, the memories made with other people, the giggles induced by shared laughs.
These technologies offer a range of games and other activities that bring participants together.
Whether a virtual air hockey game stirs good, old-fashioned competition, or a simulated roller-coaster ride has everyone screaming and tossing their hands in the air with delight, connections are made and happiness is increased.
INTERGENERATIONAL INTERACTIONS
Lots of research has demonstrated how enriching interactions among different generations can be for both old and young. These technologies offer activities that they can easily — and happily — participate in together.
Playing the games and activities together can really reduce the generation gap, offering a variety of shared special experiences for seniors with children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren.
Such experiences can not only boost everyone’s moods, but make return visits from the younger generations to the older feel much more enticing and give seniors things to really look forward to.
CONTROL OVER THEIR ENVIRONMENTS
Both immersive and interactive technologies can give users a real sense of control over their environments — a feeling they don’t often get living in a retirement or long-term-care home.
Many of the applications beamed by the technologies are all about cause and effect by the user.
For instance, with one video, they swipe their hands over floating eggs, causing them to break. In another, they can step on a coloured ball and watch it splat. Having control over these effects can be very empowering.
NOSTALGIA AND REMINISCENCE
Finally, strolls down memory lane can do wonders for picking up a mood. Feelings of nostalgia and reminiscences can trigger all sorts of positive memories, bringing memorable moments back to life.
Motion-activated and immersive technologies can take users back in time, whether to their own actual pasts or to more general times and places that might stir happy memories.
These memories can be triggered by still images, moving videos, familiar sounds or even a virtual visit through Google Street View.
It’s tough getting older, no doubt, but the journey can be made much sweeter with these marvellous technologies. There’s nothing better than seeing joy on the face of an older person, thanks to these systems.
