Game Application Using A* Pathfinding Algorithm to Help Improving Dementia

What could be worse than losing the ability to memorize with time? According to Alzheimer's Disease International, in 2016, about 47 million people worldwide were estimated to be living with dementia. This apparently large number was even expected to triple to 131 million by 2050, with the largest relative increase to be seen in low and middle-income countries. Contributing to the studies of memory improvement, my project focused on designing an application that recorded the time taken by users affected by dementia to navigate through three-dimensional maps using memory. The recorded results could be used to compare to a standard navigation time produced by users without dementia. If the compared results yielded significant differences suggesting varying cognitive styles between people with and without dementia, the application could be applied further to assist in the memory improvement process by encouraging users to actively memorize various maps. This project used A* Search Algorithm, which is one of the search algorithms for finding the shortest path between nodes or graphs by using information about path cost and heuristics, as the standard shortest path to compare with the path generated by users. The application was also designed with Unity, a cross-platform game engine, to convert a two-dimensional map into a real-time three-dimensional environment. Initially, the application would provide users a set of two-dimensional maps, which would also be provided at the beginning of every level. After memorizing the maps, users would apply their map recognition ability into a three-dimensional world to navigate to a pre-designated destination. The way users utilize their memorization and map recognition ability reflects their different cognitive styles, which would be recorded as user pathfinding information by the application. Finally, the results recorded from users will be compared with the A* pathfinding algorithm and recorded into the database for future research.