Opportunity Knocks

Our initial focus in this project is on the development of devices for providing assistance in route finding and community mobility to individuals with cognitive disabilities. The first assisted cognition device we are developing is called Opportunity Knocks.

The purpose of Opportunity Knocks is to (1) detect when a user is likely to be lost or wandering, and (2) to guide the user back to home or another place of safety when necessary. Opportunity Knocks meshes several technologies (cell phone, GPS receiver and wireless modem).

In its final form, Opportunity Knocks will learn a user's typical daily routines (including locations of activities), monitor for variations in the individual's typical day-to-day activities and then decide whether a prompt is necessary if the routine is unexpectedly changed.

Opportunity Knocks exists as a preliminary proof of concept prototype. The outcome of our work will be the continued development of prototype devices that provide sophisticated assistance in functional areas requiring cognitive skills as well as the training protocols needed to prepare users to effectively use them.