Abstract
One of the effects of late-stage dementia is the loss of the ability to communicate verbally. Patients become unable to call for help if they feel uncomfortable. The first objective of this article was to record facial expressions of bedridden demented elderly. For this purpose, we developed a video acquisition system (ViAS) that records synchronized video coming from two cameras. Each camera delivers uncompressed color images of 1,024 × 768 pixels, up to 30 frames per second. It is the first time that such a system has been placed in a patient’s room. The second objective was to simultaneously label these video recordings with respect to discomfort expressions of the patients. Therefore, we developed a Digital Discomfort Labeling Tool (DDLT). This tool provides an easy-to-use software representation on a tablet PC of validated “paper” discomfort scales. With ViAS and DDLT, 80 different datasets were obtained of about 15 minutes of recordings. Approximately 80% of the recorded datasets delivered the labeled video recordings. The remainder were not usable due to under- or overexposed images and due to the patients being out of view as the system was not properly replaced after care. In one of 6 observed patients, nurses recognized a higher discomfort level that would not have been observed without the DDLT.