The loss of memory is an extremely difficult situation, not just for those afflicted, but also for immediate family, close friends, and care givers. With no cure available for dementia, providing care is an extremely demanding task for everyone involved – both mentally and physically. Patients are unable to retain recent events and information, but will most likely be able to recall some amount of past memories. This presents serious challenges when they encounter “modern” technology and cannot figure out how to use and operate everyday devices that normal people take for granted.
[rosswesleyporter]’s Dad had trouble using modern iPods and CD players, so he built DQMusicBox — a Dementia friendly music player. It’s very simple interface resembling a radio from half a century ago. There are just two large, clearly marked rotary dials — one for Volume, the other for Songs, and a headphone socket. The inspiration came from a very moving documentary called “Alive Inside” which explores how music brings extreme joy to people with dementia.
The device is built around a Raspberry Pi, enclosed in a laser cut enclosure and requires no soldering — making it easy for anyone to build one for themselves using easily available parts. The Raspberry Pi runs on a lightweight, optimized version of Raspbian called DietPi. The music playback is handled by VLC ensuring support for a large number of music formats. A Python script looks for music files, sets up the VLC-NOX player and handles knob and button events. A bundled image file for the software includes everything needed to get it running, making setup easy and quick. Since Raspberry Pi’s are prone to OS corruption when power is disconnected without performing a proper shutdown, [Ross] uses write protection on the SD-card and walks you through the process of how it works.
Between his Project page, Github and DQMusicBox website, you will be able to get all the information needed to replicate this excellent project. And for his next version, he already has a few ideas for improvement and would like to hear if other hackers have suggestions.
I really dig the attention to detail. Things like having that read only filesystem go a long way to making a project more suitable for others to go out and have good results making their own.
A box that looks like a radio would create more familiar feeling than crenelated burnt ugliness that has sharp corners. Good that VLC is used. Mp3 and other damaged downloads can produce a unfamiliar sound to a song one has a memory of how it sounds, as well as how it goes.
Maybe the “songs” knob should be named “station” or “tuning” to make the analogy more intuitive?
This project is a great idea! My dad suffered from dementia and turning on his radio with some familiar tunes was the best way to bring a smile to his face.
might be nice upgrading to a pi zero-w and having it alternately get vintage radio content from archive.org/etc too – that and maybe putting it into a cathedral/tombstone style radio cabinet (though that would mean gutting history or involve actual woodworking)
I have seen cheap reproductions of the radio you describe. Usually in thrift stores. Avoids destroying a piece of history.
Half a century ago was the 60s, not the 30s, so we’re talking cheap plastic radios, not works of art!