Recollect

Inspiration

Two of the primary inspirations behind our app were the presence of Alzheimer’s in the family of one of our team members and the information we received from others in school about this disease, especially its effects on the human body. Some of the main symptoms of Alzheimer’s included memory loss, including the forgetting of names of common objects and family members. We decided that in order to counteract the symptoms of such a dreadful disease, we would build an app which would aid in the preservation of their memory through easier identification of various objects and their significance to each patient.

What it does

Our iOS app, Recollect, uses the AWS Rekognition API to identify the purpose of common household objects, and to store the personal significance of each object to the according person. Our team also utilized ARKit to help Alzheimer’s patients stay focused on the object, as it would remain tracked even when the object moves off screen, so they can easily find it again. One example of this use is if a grandfather with Alzheimer’s disease had a trophy in his house that one of his grandson’s house. In order to remember the significance of the trophy, they can scan it and store the story of the trophy to preserve precious moments in his memory, and recall it even many months later.

How we built it

Developed on the iOS platform, we used Xcode. We used the AWS Rekognition API to identify objects, and ARKit and SceneKit to mark and track the location of the objects virtually.

Challenges we ran into

The Amazon Rekognition API was a bit problematic because we couldn’t find as much documentation for it on iOS, but we were eventually able to solve this problems quickly.

Accomplishments that we’re proud of

We loved building this product, since we knew that it could help Alzheimer’s patients live their daily lives a little better, and help store some of their memories. Another accomplishment would be implementing ARKit, because it’s a relatively new technology that we were able to take advantage of.

What we learned

Our team learned how to use ARKit and SceneKit, integrate the AWS Rekognition API, and a lot more about Alzheimer’s from the research we did.

What’s next for Recollect

We want to publish this app to the App Store in the next few weeks.

Built With

• amazon-web-services
• arkit