The ‘Dear Diary’ project developed by the Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) Centre, of which Intel Ireland is a collaborative partner, features in Engineers Ireland March-April 2011 journal.
Through the Dear Diary project, TRIL Centre researchers are attempting to identify characteristics of older people’s speech that predict their level of cognitive functioning—speech biomarkers that could signal the onset of problems. ‘Speech—in particular, reading and describing things—provides a window into cognitive function,’ says Prof. Richard Reilly, Research Professor of Neural Engineering in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and co-leader of the project. ‘It targets several areas of the brain, which control the visual system; the articulators that allow us to form words; and semantic ability, which is the ability to understand meaning and relationships. By measuring speech characteristics, we’re tapping into a wide range of brain functions.’
- Click here to read the journal article
- Click here to read the full article on the TRIL website
- Click here to read more about the project
Further Information
About the TRIL Centre
The TRIL Centre looks at the physical, social and cognitive consequences of ageing and develops technologies to address them…’making longer lives better’.
TRIL is an active collaboration between researchers in academic, clinical and industry settings. Operating as a virtual centre with researchers based in UCD, TCD, NUIG and Intel, it tackles the problems associated with demographic ageing. The centre harnesses multidisciplinary ageing research, clinical expertise and enabling technology development and evaluation to support independent living. For more visit www.trilcentre.org.