Cueing Kitchen

People with cognitive impairments such as traumatic brain injury, dementia, or Alzheimer’s disease may struggle with activities of daily life. Food preparation in particular may be a problem for these individuals. Therefore, HERL has developed the Cueing Kitchen to assist with these tasks. The Cueing Kitchen is a basic residential kitchen cabinet layout with major appliances that is modified with low-cost and adaptable portable or wireless sensing and cueing technologies which works with any modern kitchen design. These technologies allow the program to recognize, for example, if an individual is using the correct appliance and for the correct duration, has opened the correct cabinets or appliances, has retrieved or stored the correct item, has collected the correct amount of water,  or is working in the correct region of the kitchen. The Cueing Kitchen is able to prompt individuals through multi-step tasks in a timely and systematic manner. These prompts currently include audio sequences, “smart glass” installed into the cabinet doors, projected images or text, and a system of wirelessly triggered battery-operated illuminating grab-handles. Advanced dialog generation software generates and adapts instructions to users depending on their cognitive abilities. Furthermore, a smartphone remote control application can switch off certain aspects of the kitchen. This currently includes remote control of the oven, cook-top, counter-top appliances, or even the faucet. The sensor network, prompting tools, and software system are designed to be portable and adaptable so that one may add on to the resident’s existing kitchen environment without significant modifications.