‘MEMORY SHOTS’ BY KODAK BREAKS NEW GROUND IN THERAPY FOR ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE PATIENTS.  

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the cruelest and most challenging diseases anyone can face. For those afflicted, reminiscence therapy (helping them to remember events, people, and places from their past lives) is hugely important because it provides a sense of joy, it helps them to cope with stress, reduces boredom and depression and makes life seem a little sunnier. Within this reminiscence therapy, photos are one of the most important triggers to recollect memory and take someone back in time. Problem is: not every cherished moment has a photo.

Recollecting memory of which no photo exists

'Memory Shots' offers an unprecedented experience to dementia patients and their therapists as a part of the 'Reminiscence therapy' in dementia treatment centers, allowing anybody with a very limited digital, tech or prompt knowledge to recreate a memory of which no photo exists. But besides recreating the memory in a photo, the tool allows anybody in a super-easy way to edit and keep editing the picture (you can even customize it by adding existing pictures to face-swap for example) until the patient feels it reflects their memory. 

Combining different technologies

‘Memory Shots’ combines different existing technologies, with Finetuned Stable Diffusion XL as a basis, which is then complemented by: Controlnets, IPAdapter, FaceID, Inswapper and Codeformer, with extra Fine-tuned LLM for information extraction and translation to a diffusion prompt. The tool makes use of large language models and open image diffusion models to generate photorealistic images based on a conversation about a memory. ‘Memory Shots’ was developed together with all Belgian Alzheimer’s associations (Alzheimer Liga Vlaanderen, Alzheimer Belgique, Stopalzheimer.be, Expertisecentrum Dementie Vlaanderen, Baluchon Alzheimer). Making 'Memory Shots' a totally new ground within the much needed and highly important 'Reminiscence Therapy' at Dementia treatment centers. The development of the tool has been financed by Kodak Images in Belgium and is now free of any cost available for any dementia treatment center. Every picture generated also refers to a Kodak camera of that time. Offering patients and their caregivers a trip through memory lane, while experiencing a trip through Kodak’s long heritage at the same time.

Longer and more detailed conversations

Rik Vandenberghe, professor neurology, UZ Leuven: “Alzheimer’s is not only a disease of the memory. It’s also a disease that affects communication. Conversations tend to become difficult and remain superficial. An important aspect of ‘Memory Shots’ is that it opens up new conversations and raises new subjects. The construction of a photo gets the memory above the threshold of consciousness.”

Lucie Leroux, responsible for ‘Stop Alzheimer’: “It’s amazing to notice how ‘Memory Shots’ allows us to progress from a simple memory “I went to school” to longer conversations about “classmates” and “the war”. And the conversation lasted for many minutes, with the patient continuously being attentive. The fact that you can keep editing the photo allows us to keep digging for more detailed information, and get the conversation going.”

Erik Salmon, Professor Neuroimaging, University of Liege: “The problem with Alzheimer’s is that people withdraw and have less and less contact with others. ‘Memory Shots’ allows us to bring up new topics, add details, gather different opinions, and reconstruct a memory of which no photo exists. Which fosters conversation. And definitely improves their quality of life.”

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Credits

Client: Kodak Images - H. De Beukelaer & C° nv

Director: Stefaan De Beuckelaer

Sales & Marketing Director: Sigert Machtelinckx

Marketing Assistant: Daniel Leibovitz

Agency: Happiness 

CEO & Executive Creative Management: Karen Corrigan

Chief Creative Officer: Geoffrey Hantson
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​Creative Director: Frederik Clarysse
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​Creatives: Thomas Cappelle, Mathias Lemielle

Business Director: Mattias Vermeire

Account Executive: Noa Perelsztejn

Connectivity & Content Director: Marine Vandenplas 

Copywriters: Dee Verwaetermeulen, Stéphane Opdenbosch, Margaux Gérard

Head of Technology: Thomas Colliers

Motion Design: Remke Faber, Simon Schuurman, Andrey Brunkowski

Agency Producer: Bart Vande Maele

Design: Lore Snauwaert, Dries Lauwers

Music: Jaan Hantson

Film Production Partner: AMOK

Executive Producer: Filip Vangeffelen (Amok)

DOP: Sam Ostyn (Amok)

PR: David Dalemans (Double Deeds)