Location-Based Android App for Alzheimer`s Patients

The medical condition that develops as a result of the gradual death of brain cells, leading to memory loss, dementia, and overall cognitive decline, is known as Alzheimer's disease. Individuals with Alzheimer's may fail to recognize their loved ones and may unknowingly wander away from home. For this reason, caregivers must remain constantly alert.

To offer a solution to this issue, I decided to develop a basic Android application. Back in 2018, I used to watch Atıl Samancıoğlu’s Android development courses on Udemy, practicing the lessons he taught. When this idea came to mind, I immediately started turning it into a project.

The application is a simple Android app. Functionally, it allows people with Alzheimer’s to store information about their loved ones—such as names, photos, relationship type, and reminders—almost like digital business cards. When they forget, they can look back at these cards to help recall who the person is by reading and viewing related reminders.

The part that benefits the caregivers is that they don’t have to stay constantly anxious about whether the patient has wandered off or not. A reference location (the home) is defined as a center point. A circular geofence (for example, 2 km) is drawn around this center. If the Alzheimer’s patient goes beyond the defined distance, an automatic alert (via SMS or call) is sent to their caregiver. Additionally, live location tracking is available, but instead of constant monitoring, it is more practical to send alerts when critical boundaries are crossed.

During development, I built the app using Android and integrated Google Maps services. The notification system that alerts caregivers when the patient crosses the defined boundary is implemented using Firebase.

You can access the application's source code here.