A story about how I prepared an 'electronic paper message board' for my mother who has memory loss and forgets what happened a few minutes ago
Software designer Jan Miskovski wrote a blog post about his experience creating an 'electronic paper message board' for his mother, who suffers from
MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia
https://jan.miksovsky.com/posts/2024/11-12-momboard
In June 2022, Miskovsky's mother suffered from anterograde amnesia as a side effect of a long operation, and was unable to form new long-term memories. Although her mother occasionally remembers certain memories, in most cases, even if she sees or hears something, she is unable to remember it a few minutes later. The symptoms are similar to dementia, but unlike progressive dementia, Miskovsky says that her mother's condition is stable, and there is no prospect of recovery.
A mother living alone in an apartment cannot store new memories, so she does not know where her grown children are living or if they are safe, and she lives in a constant state of mild anxiety. Because she has no recent memories, even if she met or spoke to them the day before, she feels that she has not heard from them recently, and she frequently calls or emails them.
The children, including Miskovsky, tried to respond to their mother's messages as much as possible, but after five minutes they would forget everything and their mother would become anxious again. Since the mother was unable to remember new things, she was unable to look back at the paper notes she left behind. Also, since she was not in the habit of rereading text messages, once she read a message, she would forget it immediately.
So Miskovsky thought, 'If I put an always-connected device in my mother's apartment and it displayed notes that I and my siblings had written, my mother would see the device in her daily life, read the messages, and feel more at ease.'
Miskovski set out to build a display that met these criteria:
1. It will continue to function for months
2: Miskovsky and others can easily post short messages that will remain visible until replaced with a new message.
3. The text is large enough to read without glasses
4: No startup or read operations are required, and it will not be accidentally erased by any operation.
5: Resilient to network failures
6. Does not glow in a dark room at night
7. No hardware modifications required
8: When you start the app, a message will appear directly.
9. It doesn’t rely on subscriptions or proprietary app stores
10. Reasonably priced
11. It won't look out of place in your home
With the above criteria in mind, Miskovsky searched for e-paper and came across
After getting his hands on the BOOX Note Air2, Miskovsky confirmed that the device could automatically launch a web browser and display a pre-specified page. He then began building a simple website that would function as an online message board for his mother.
The website developed by Miskovsky consists of a 'board page that displays messages' and a 'creation page where children post and save messages.' The board page is further divided into an 'outer frame' that reloads the creation page every hour to detect software changes, and an 'inner page' that requests message data from a web service every five minutes and displays the messages on the screen.
The creation page shows a simple input form where Miskovsky and others can post and save messages, as shown below. This also works on smartphone screens, so children can write messages on the go, and can be quickly accessed with one tap by setting it as a web app on the home screen.
To prevent electronic ink from burning in, the message is displayed at random, and the text font is Architect's Daughter to give it a handwritten feel. In addition, to automatically maximize the font size for messages of different lengths, Miskovsky wrote a JavaScript function that 'first displays the text as large as possible while keeping it transparent, then gradually reduces the font size until all the text fits within a certain range, and then colors the text when it reaches the appropriate size.'
After spending several weeks perfecting the software and confirming that the BOOX Note Air 2 worked over a long period of time, Miskovski installed an electronic message board in his mother's apartment in November 2022. At first, he planned to put it on the bathroom counter, but at his mother's request, it was placed on the bedroom windowsill.
Below is the actual electronic message board installed in my mother's apartment. It's propped up on a stylish metal stand, and you can see that it blends in as part of the decor in the room.
The electronic message board worked so well that the children were able to send messages to their mother that, despite her anterograde amnesia, she was able to remember the existence and purpose of the display. Nearly two years after installation, the electronic message board is still functioning, and the mother looks forward to receiving the latest messages from her children, Miskovski said.
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