(This story is from our archives of NextStep Magazine. The Magazine has since been renamed to AIC With You)
Matters of the brain hit close to home for Dr Alvin Chan, whose uncle has dementia. “I can see how it affects his family and it’s pretty heartbreaking to see that he doesn’t recognise me whenever I visit,” he shares.
A Desire To Improve Mental Health
His company Neeuro was therefore born out of the desire to help people improve their mental wellbeing by training their minds to stay active and healthy.
“Our mission is to develop innovative products that empower people to live happier, healthier and more productively through the use of neurotechnology and gamification,” he says.
Neeuro has two products under its belt so far. The first is Memorie, an application that uses games involving mahjong tiles, poker cards, and other scenarios to train attention, memory and even decision-making skills.
The other is the Senzeband, which is designed to work with Memorie. The headgear picks up your brain signals as you play the app’s games, and can sense your mental state and how well your brain is working.
Tried And Tested With Seniors
Both products have not hit the shelves yet, but Neeuro has tested the app with a group of seniors in a Singapore hospital, and the response has been positive.
“The seniors had fun playing with the app. Some even mentioned that they wanted to download it for themselves to play at home!” Dr Chan shares.
“Originally, we were concerned if they knew how to use the touchscreen technology that the app requires. But we were quickly proven wrong, as the whole experience was very smooth and intuitive for them,” he adds.
Dr Chan hopes to collaborate with organisations that provide care or activities for seniors. “The aim is to reach out to as many seniors who would benefit from our solution as possible,” he says.
Willingness To Try
Dr Chan is optimistic about the state of senior care technology in Singapore.
“I think we are moving ahead in the right direction. The care sector can certainly do more, by taking on new technologies that may not been proven yet,” he says.
“However, in order to push the technology ahead, one must take the risk of trying it out. There are certainly different technologies out there that can help seniors, and it’s about the wiliness to try.”
For more information about Neeuro, visit http://www.neeuro.com
