The Longitude Prize on Dementia has awarded the £1 million grand prize to CrossSense, a personalised AI-powered assistant developed for smart glasses.
CrossSense has been designed to identify everyday objects and guide people living with early-stage dementia through daily activities, with the ultimate aim of supporting them to live safely in their own homes for longer.
By asking gentle prompts, CrossSense’s AI companion – Wispy – understands and learns a person’s unique behaviours, with the AI adapting to each user’s needs as their dementia progresses.
The glasses are said to capture the environment of the person living with dementia, with the AI interpreting that information to help the user do the things that define independence, from taking care of themselves to hosting friends and family.
CrossSense has been developed by London-based social enterprise CrossSense Ltd. The team trained the technology with dozens of everyday activities, including getting dressed, managing household chores safely, making a cup of tea and interacting with loved ones. Wispy asks helpful questions and offers prompts so that the user makes their own choices, talking the user through what to do when they cannot remember a particular step in a process.
The interactive, talkative and patient AI companion offers cognitive stimulation to get people thinking, talking and imagining, so that individuals continue to see the relationships between things (e.g. kitchen, mugs, spoons, teabags, water, kettle and milk are all connected to making a cup of tea), which helps to maintain neural connections, slow cognitive decline in early-stage dementia and improve quality of life.
Working with the University of Sussex and a panel of people affected by dementia, the team observed improvements in some users’ ability in naming objects, and other cognitive abilities in visual-spatial understanding, short-term and working memory – a component of memory that allows individuals to actively use information in the moment, such as following a conversation, solving a simple calculation, or remembering instructions.
The prize’s panel of international expert judges agreed that the winning solution was a genuine breakthrough technology with revolutionary potential for people living with dementia and their families.
The Longitude Prize on Dementia is funded by Alzheimer’s Society and Innovate UK and is delivered by Challenge Works. It has driven the creation of personalised, technology-based tools that have been co-created with people living with dementia, helping them maintain their independence at home.
In addition, the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded academics from the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at LSE to conduct a product evaluation study in the final phase.
Szczepan Orlins, CEO, CrossSense Ltd, said: “Winning the Longitude Prize on Dementia is a dream come true. As a small team with big ambitions, the prize’s support has accelerated CrossSense in ways that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. The technology is designed to support daily living, integrating multiple senses to simplify essential tasks. We’re grateful to the people living with dementia and their families who helped shape it. This win brings us closer to making CrossSense available to the public within the next year.”
Dame Wendy Hall, internationally renowned AI expert and chair of the Longitude Committee, added: “CrossSense captures exactly the kind of revolutionary AI the Longitude Prize set out to support. The team’s progress over the past three years has been remarkable – their expertise, co-design approach and focus on personalised AI, built on existing smart glasses hardware, truly set them apart. Most importantly, the impact the technology has already had on people living with dementia is worth more than any prize. While only one winner can be chosen, every finalist has developed innovations that will have a positive impact and make life easier for people with dementia and their families. The prize has helped accelerate multiple solutions that will soon be available.”
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