Designing a spoken dialogue interface to an intelligent cognitive assistant for people with dementia.

Intelligent cognitive assistants support people who need help performing everyday tasks by detecting when problems occur and providing tailored and context-sensitive assistance. Spoken dialogue interfaces allow users to interact with intelligent cognitive assistants while focusing on the task at hand. In order to establish requirements for voice interfaces to intelligent cognitive assistants, we conducted three focus groups with people with dementia, carers, and older people without a diagnosis of dementia. Analysis of the focus group data showed that voice and interaction style should be chosen based on the preferences of the user, not those of the carer. For people with dementia, the intelligent cognitive assistant should act like a patient, encouraging guide, while for older people without dementia, assistance should be to the point and not patronising. The intelligent cognitive assistant should be able to adapt to cognitive decline.