I Played a Game for Dementia Patients

And I can’t remember what it was like. No, sorry, that was a cruel joke.

Tovertafel is a platform based on a top down projector and camera tracking. So technically nothing new. But in this case it’s being used to stimulate dementia patients or other people with reduced mental capacity, or neurodivergents.

There’s two purposes to this game platform. On a basic level it can provide easy to process stimuli for those who have a hard time activating themselves in a traditional sense. It can also be used to train mental capacity and hopefully rehabilitate people who have the capacity but a difficult time utilizing it.

At Vitalis, the Nordics largest E-Health event in Gothenburg, Sweden, I got to try out!

The basic version I tried provides visual and audio stimuli when you place your hands on the table. I have to say it was a pretty pleasant experience. You get a bit of feelgood interacting with the particles on the table.

But like I mentioned, this level has no higher purpose except to provide simple stimuli to otherwise apathetic people. There are higher levels meant to train your capacity to utilize your brainpower. Perfect for preventing the worsening of say dementia patients, or severe cases of autism, or reduced mental capacity patients.

Being a so called high-functioning autist myself I certainly approve of this idea.

You can check it out in action below:

Tovertafel is a games console designed for use in healthcare settings that was launched in 2015 by the Dutch medical technologies company Active Cues. The console contains a high-quality projector, infrared sensors, a loudspeaker and a processor with which interactive games are projected onto a table. Wikipedia