Simple Music Player for people with dementia and similar problems with cognizance

A Music Player for Dementia

The beneficial effects of music for people with dementia are quite outstanding; both for improving the quality of life, especially when living alone, and for its healthy restorative effects on cognizance and lucidity. A recurring problem however, has been the difficulties people with dementia face when trying to operate modern music playing equipment. Remembering how controls operate or manipulation of knobs, non-tactile buttons, and an array of confusing symbols all limit access to this well proved benefit.

The ’Simple Music Player’ has been designed to be as easy as possible to operate for the end user; that is, the person with dementia. Setting up the player is undertaken by friends, family or carers, as a one time process. Extensive trialling has verified that the operation is highly intuitive and does not require any prior knowledge or memory to start and stop the player. The styling is also reminiscent of old radios and is instantly recognisable as something which plays music.

To operate, there are only three controls:

• Start playing music - just lift the lid
• Skip this song - (optional) press the big button
• Stop the music - close the lid

The music will always continue from where it was last stopped.

Setting up the Simple Music Player

Setting up is undertaken by friends, family, or carers. There are two essential operations: Setting the volume and uploading the playlist.

The volume control is designed to avoid being accidentally changed by the user. This could lead to the music being far too loud and disturbing, or too quiet so it may appear to be ’broken’ if hard of hearing or confused.

To adjust the volume, using a pencil or similar, press and hold one of the buttons underneath the player. You don't need to press too hard; you should feel a gentle click like on a keyboard or doorbell. Only after holding the control for 5 seconds the volume will begin to increase or decrease, so it can be set to the appropriate level.

A playlist for special occasions - using the external USB/thumb drive

There might be occasions when a particular playlist might be more suitable, Christmas or birthdays for example, but changing the playlist would be time consuming.

To achieve this, simply plugging in a "USB stick or thumb drive" will override the internal memory and play the tunes on the exernal device.
By removing the USB drive the player will resume its original playlist