Mnemoscape: Supporting Older Adults' Event Memory Using Wearable Camera Photographs on an Immersive Interface

Wearable camera photographs have been shown to be an effective memory aid in people with and without memory impairment. Most studies using wearable cameras as a memory aid have presented photographs on a computer monitor and used a written diary or no review as a comparison. In this pioneering study, we took a new and innovative approach to wearable camera photograph review that embeds the photographs within a virtual landscape. This approach may enhance these benefits by reinstating the original environmental context to increase participants' sense of re-experiencing the event.

We compare the traditional computer monitor presentation of wearable camera photographs and actively taken digital photographs with the presentation of wearable camera photographs in a new immersive interface that reinstates the spatiotemporal context.

Healthy older adults wore wearable or took digital photographs during a staged event. The next day and 2 weeks later, they viewed wearable camera photographs on a computer monitor or in context on an immersive interface, or digital photographs.

Participants who viewed wearable camera photographs in either format recalled more details during photo viewing and subsequent free recall than participants who viewed digital photographs they had taken themselves.

Wearable camera photographs are an effective support for event memory, regardless of whether they are presented in context in an experience-near format.