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People suffering from the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease often have difficulty remembering things that recently happened to them. As the disease takes root, a person’s reasoning and behaviour can change. Day-to-day routines — like handwashing — may become challenging for them and they begin to need more assistance from caregivers for simple tasks.

But now there is technology that can help.

photo of Jess Hoey

“From my readings, I have stumbled upon your great website, which is … helping me understand the nature of polyhedra. I have a question regarding the structures you have posted on your site. I am not a mathematician; I am a biologist and therefore my question might sound downright naïve. The structure in question is the near-miss Johnson solid …”

Researchers at the Cheriton School of Computer Science have developed a strategy that could reduce the level of frustration users experience when giving gesture commands to smart devices and smart environments.

In a study that outlines the new strategy, the researchers found that when developing smart devices to recognize gesture input, the adage, “If at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again,” can be applied to boost users’ perceptions of system reliability.

Researchers at the Cheriton School of Computer Science have found that individuals may be more motivated to do work for their favourite charity than for money. 

In a study reviewing the efficacy of a new online work-sharing platform designed to put money into the hands of charities, the researchers discovered that people providing their skills and labour toward a specific task tended to do a better job if they knew their favourite charity rather than themselves would be paid for it.

Blockchain technology creates digital ledgers that record sequential exchanges of information, commonly called transactions. To improve performance, transactions are batched into blocks before they are added to the ledger. Each new block contains a hash value which, like a mugshot, acts as an identifier and proof of the previous state of the ledger.