New technology at Winnipeg care home projecting games, puzzles and experiences for residents

Misericordia Place has the only Tover in Manitoba. (Source: Scott Andersson/CTV News)

WINNIPEG — One Winnipeg care home is now home to a new piece of technology that brings games, puzzles and interactive experiences to its residents.

Misericordia Place, located on Furby Street, now has Manitoba’s only Tovertafel (Tover) – a $14,000 device that combines technology with sensory stimulation.

The Tover mounts onto the ceiling and projects games, experiences, and activities onto a tabletop. These activities include cognitive puzzles, whack-a-mole, soccer, gardening and bird feeding.

Residents can interact with the device as it senses hand movements and reacts.

“Essentially it uses technology that projects images that you can interact with using your hands, as well as using your mind,” said Brianna Boyce, a recreation therapist at the Misericordia Health Centre, in an interview on Monday.

“It’s very cognitively stimulating.”

She noted that the Tover uses many different domains of the brain, and stimulates users in many ways.

“It’s able to use the visual, it’s able to create almost a tactile with the fact that you’re interacting with an image displayed on a table,” Boyce said.

“Just that combination, it really stimulates the brain in a different way and that’s what we’re wanting to encourage with our residents.”

Boyce said the Tover was designed with a variety of older adults and is inclusive of all different abilities.

“So during the research process, they made sure they were developing different games and activities that were tailored to different levels,” she said.

THE IMPACT ON RESIDENTS AND FAMILIES

Maureen Penko, whose mom is one of the residents at the care home, said the new device allows her mother to be able to focus on something visual.

She added that her mom has also been able to take her left hand, which is her stronger hand, to support her right hand to try to move them both.

“She doesn’t do that naturally, but this is such a stimulating thing through the visual channel that she tried to do what she always would’ve done naturally,” she said on Monday.

Penko noted that with the Tover, her mom “doesn’t have to listen to anything. She doesn’t have to listen to speech and process that. She just has to use her eyes and activate them.”

She noted the technology also has association activities, which is helpful for her mother, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

“This allows my mom to do some recall with her abilities, and that’s very exciting,” Penko said.

She added that as her mom has been losing her ability to speak, it’s important for her family to know that she can still think about what she wants to say.

“Somehow with the visuals, I just saw it on Thursday, she started to say some things,” she said.

“We know there’s a connection in the brain between visual and auditory and motor and all of it seemed to suddenly, spontaneously connect for her, and she smiled and she said something.”

Penko said it’s exciting to see technological innovations that stimulate elderly people and enable them to do more activities.