DementiaCare-AR: AI Companion in Augmented Reality for Dementia Care
Dementia is a progressive neurological condition that poses a growing public health challenge in many developing nations with an aging population requiring increasingly intensive long-term care. Patients commonly experience difficulty managing medication schedules, performing daily activities, and maintaining social engagement, all of which accelerate cognitive decline. This paper presents an Augmented Reality (AR)-based artificial intelligence (AI) medical companion mobile application named DementiaCare-AR, designed to support dementia patients through real-time conversational interaction, personalised daily routine, and medication reminders, and photo-based cognitive stimulation exercises. The system employs Natural Language Processing (NLP) for voice-driven dialogue, an AR rendering engine to place an AI companion that acts as a virtual caregiver within the patient's physical environment, and a structured activity-logging module that enables caregivers and clinicians to monitor behavioural patterns remotely. An initial working prototype has been developed and demonstrated in this paper. The proposed system is intended as a complementary support tool, rather than a replacement for human professional care.