What if you could rest well knowing that your parent or loved one is being looked after? What if you knew the loved one had a companion he could talk to and interact with regularly? What if that loved one had a reminder system that could help him remember scheduled activities or help him improve his mental health and quality of life? What if all of that was delivered via a dog?
It’s true. The GeriJoy system offers virtual talking pets that provide companionship and monitoring for people with dementia or other memory problems. The GeriJoy companion acts as a personal, virtual attendant by helping orient the senior to the time of day and scheduled activities, remind him to drink more water, take medicine or complete a task. This is all accomplished with the help of a talking dog image (or cat if you prefer). The companion offers company to the person by always being available no matter what time it is and provides unconditional love and support to help improve emotional and mental health. This technology allows the pet to interact just as a real pet would including feeding and caring for the pet that responds to touch and care from your loved one. It also has the ability to speak and have compassion for its “owner” as well as answer questions and report back to your loved one to keep him in the loop with current events, weather, etc.
This tablet-based program requires an Internet connection, an Android device and there are no computer skills required – not even typing – to use the program. Sound is streamed over the Internet to a real live person who then instantly creates natural, intelligent and compassionate responses for the pet. The live person known as a “helper” is available 24/7 and logs all conversations and findings and reports to you for care management insight so you can see how your loved one is doing even if you can’t be there – peace of mind.
The GeriJoy companion also can send and receive messages and photos between you and your loved one, which the pet intuitively shows to your loved one and engages him in conversation about family and positive memories in order to assist in reinforcing family connections. It speaks with your loved one, calms him down, asks how he is doing and then can report all of it back to you.
The GeriJoy companion is great for many environments including the home, assisted living and skilled nursing facilities. The company provides regular free software updates.
You can learn more about GeriJoy in this interview with Victor Wang and by watching the videos below.
GeriJoy videos
