Tracking Together: A Robot-and-App-Based Speech Analysis System to Support Shared Meaning-Making Among Dementia Care Partners

Key findings from this study

This research indicates that:

• People living with dementia value tracking systems that support autonomy maintenance and serve as memory aids rather than merely documenting cognitive decline.
• Care partners require actionable recommendations paired with cognitive progress metrics to effectively operationalize numerical tracking data in caregiving contexts.
• Care partners simultaneously value tracking personal and relational information—conversation content, preferences, discussion points—to understand and maintain connection with their relatives beyond clinical decline.

Overview

This exploratory study examined how people living with dementia and their care partners conceptualize tracking within their care relationship. The research evaluated a prototype system combining robot-based conversational capture with mobile application visualization of speech data. The investigation centered on identifying user preferences, informational needs, and how tracking supports the care dyad rather than focusing solely on symptom quantification.

Methods and approach

Eight people living with dementia and nine care partners participated in iterative design feedback sessions regarding a robot-and-app-based speech tracking system. Reflexive thematic analysis synthesized qualitative data from participant interactions with the system concept. The analysis examined both user groups' perspectives on tracking utility, informational priorities, and relational dimensions of care partnerships.

Results

People living with dementia prioritized using the system to preserve autonomy and independence. They sought opportunities to discuss symptoms directly with the robot and to leverage tracked information as cognitive support. Care partners demonstrated dual motivations: they valued numerical cognitive progress metrics specifically when coupled with actionable guidance for their caregiving responsibilities. Simultaneously, care partners prioritized tracking conversational content and discussion points to deepen understanding of their relatives' experiences, preferences, and identity beyond disease trajectory. The analysis revealed that care partners' informational needs shifted depending on whether they engaged in the interaction from a clinical caregiver perspective or a relational role as spouse or adult child.

Implications

Current tracking systems for dementia care often emphasize symptom quantification and disease monitoring, potentially overlooking what individuals with dementia and their partners actually want to monitor and understand. This research suggests that tailored information provisioning—distinct datasets aligned with each user's primary needs and role—can strengthen both autonomy and relational understanding within care partnerships. Implementation of such differentiated tracking approaches may require rethinking interface design, data visualization, and notification mechanisms to serve clinical and relational dimensions simultaneously rather than treating them as synonymous. Future system development should incorporate the expressed preferences of both people living with dementia and care partners from early design phases, recognizing that informational utility extends beyond symptom surveillance.

Scope and limitations

This summary is based on the study abstract and available metadata. It does not include a full analysis of the complete paper, supplementary materials, or underlying datasets unless explicitly stated. Findings should be interpreted in the context of the original publication.