肯尼斯·志之冢：守護老年癡呆癥患者的暖心少年

老年癡呆癥患者可能會出現隨意走動的癥狀，如果沒有被家人或看護者及時發現，他們就很容易走丟或是發生意外，甚至還會有生命危險。為了讓患有老年癡呆癥的姥爺不再走丟，一位名叫肯尼斯·志之冢的美國少年設計出了一款可穿戴式運動傳感器，不僅為他的姥爺，更為廣大老年癡呆癥患者送去了“平凡”而又溫暖的守護……

Kenneth Shinozuka was six when a policeman brought his grandfather home， who'd been wandering the freeway in his pajamas.

His grandfather had always been there for Kenneth， reading and singing to him and taking him for walks on the beach. Now his grandfather needed help. Getting lost wasn't the first sign he had Alzheimer's， but it was the most dramatic. Kenneth vowed to do everything he could to protect his beloved grandpa. He invented a motion sensor that sends a signal to a caregiver's smartphone when a patient steps out of bed.

More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's and every 67 seconds someone in the U.S. develops the disease， according to the Alzheimer's Association. The disease takes its toll on2） 15.5 million caregivers， burdened with the stress of caring for a loved one with the disease. Sixty-five percent of all Alzheimer's patients wander， according to the association. Kenneth's aunt， who has a PhD in pharmaceutical3） science， had to quit her job as a professor to care for his grandfather， Kenneth's mother said in an interview.

Kenneth got the idea for a motion sensor one night when he was watching his grandfather and he started to get up to wander.

"As soon as he stepped onto the floor， I had this sort of light bulb moment， sort of a eureka4） moment."

肯尼斯·志之冢六歲時，有一次一位警察把他的姥爺送回了家，此前穿著睡衣的姥爺一直在高速公路上四處游蕩。

肯尼斯的姥爺曾經一直陪伴在他的身邊，給他讀書、唱歌，還帶他到海灘去散步。現在，姥爺需要幫助了。雖然走丟并不是他患上老年癡呆癥的首個癥狀，但卻是最讓人揪心的。肯尼斯發誓要盡所能保護心愛的姥爺。他發明了一款運動傳感器，它可以在患者下床時向看護者的智能手機發送信號。

美國老年癡呆癥協會表示，美國有超過500萬的老年癡呆癥患者，而且每67秒就有一位美國人患上老年癡呆癥。這種疾病為1550萬看護者帶來了不小的麻煩，他們承受著照料患有該疾病的親人的壓力。協會還稱，在所有老年癡呆癥患者中，有65%的人都會到處亂走。肯尼斯的媽媽在一次采訪中說，肯尼斯的姨媽是一位擁有藥物科學博士學位的教授，為了照顧肯尼斯的姥爺，她不得不辭去了自己的工作。

一天晚上，肯尼斯注視著姥爺，姥爺則開始起身要走動，就在那時，肯尼斯想到了運動傳感器這個點子。

“他的腳剛一踏上地板，我就突發靈感，就是‘我發現了！的那種瞬間。”

Kenneth's motion sensor attaches to a sock or the bottom of a foot. In a TED5） Talks appearance， Kenneth said he faced three challenges in developing the sensor. First， he needed to come up with a material that was thin enough to be comfortable on the bottom of a foot. He tried rubber but quickly ruled it out6） because it was too thick. He decided to use film7） with electrically conducted pressure-sensitive8） ink particles. Once pressure is applied， the particles move closer together， starting the signal.

Next， he had to design a wearable wireless circuit， but a wireless signal transmission requires heavy bulky9） batteries， Kenneth said. He used Bluetooth energy technology， which consumes very little power and can be driven by a coin-sized battery. Finally， he had to write code for an app that would transform a smartphone into a remote monitor. That required watching YouTube videos and reading textbooks， he said.

He sometimes got discouraged when he was working on the motion sensor， but his family's struggles prodded10） him not to give up. "The safety risks that wandering imposed on my grandfather definitely motivated me to continue working on the device even when I had hit a hard spot，" Kenneth said in an interview.

In August， 2014， Kenneth， 16， received a $50，000 Scientific American11） magazine Science in Action Award for inventing the motion sensor.

One of the biggest rewards， Kenneth says， is that now his aunt， his grandfather's primary caregiver， can sleep at night. And his grandfather is no longer wandering， a dangerous habit that can result in death， Kenneth says. There have been no slip-ups12） in the motion sensor for 15 months.

肯尼斯的運動傳感器可以貼在襪子上或是腳底。在TED大會的一次演講中，肯尼斯說自己在設計傳感器時遇到了三個挑戰。首先，他需要找到一種足夠輕薄的材料，這樣穿在腳底才會覺得舒服。他嘗試過橡膠，但很快就將其排除了，因為橡膠太厚了。他決定使用一種帶有壓敏油墨粒子的薄膜，這種油墨粒子可以通電，一旦受到擠壓就會聚攏，從而產生信號。

接下來，他需要設計一個可穿戴的無線電路，但無線信號傳輸要用笨重的電池，肯尼斯說。他使用了藍牙能源技術，這種技術只需耗費極少的電量，能由一枚硬幣大小的電池所驅動。最后，他需要寫代碼編一個手機應用軟件，從而用這個應用軟件將智能手機變為一個遠程的監測器。這就需要觀看YouTube上的一些視頻并閱讀一些教材，他說。

在研制運動傳感器的過程中，他有時也會感到灰心喪氣，但家人的種種掙扎和努力督促他不要放棄。肯尼斯在一次采訪中表示：“姥爺到處亂走所帶來的安全風險確確實實激勵我即使遇到困難也要繼續研究這個設備。”

2014年8月，16歲的肯尼斯因發明運動傳感器獲得了由《科學美國人》雜志頒發的獎金為50000美元的“科學實踐獎”。

肯尼斯稱，最大的回報之一便是姥爺的主要看護者他的姨媽現在終于可以在晚上安心睡覺了。而姥爺則沒有再到處亂走了，這一危險的習慣可能會導致死亡，肯尼斯說。15個月來，這款運動傳感器都沒有出過任何差錯。

1. Alzheimer's： （又作Alzheimer's disease）阿爾茨海默氏病，早老性癡呆病

2. take its toll on： 造成損失（或危害、傷亡等）

3. pharmaceutical [?fɑ?m??su?t?kl] adj. 制藥的

4. eureka [ju?ri?k?] int. 我發現了！（相傳是阿基米德根據比重原則測出金子純度時所說的話；現用作有重大發現時所說的驚嘆語）

5. TED： （= Technology， Entertainment， Design）由美國一家非營利性機構幼苗基金會（Sapling Foundation）所運營的世界性大會，誕生于1984年，其宗旨是“值得傳播的創意（Ideas Worth Spreading）”。該大會邀請科學、設計、文學、音樂等眾多領域的杰出人物，分享他們關于科技、社會、自然和人類等方面的思考和探索。

6. rule ... out： 把……排除在外；排除……的可能性

7. film [f?lm] n. 薄層；薄膜

8. pressure-sensitive [?pre??（r）?sens?t?v] adj. 對壓力敏感的，壓敏的

9. bulky [?b?lki] adj. 又大又笨的，不靈巧的

10. prod [pr?d] vt. 督促

11. Scientific American： 《科學美國人》雜志，美國的一本科普雜志，創刊于1845年，是美國歷史最長且一直連續出版的雜志。

12. slip-up [?sl?p?p] n. 差錯；疏忽

13. civil engineering： 土木工程（學）

14. take it upon oneself to do ...： 自行決定做……

15. Bronx： 布朗克斯區，是美國紐約的一個區。

16. critique [kr??ti?k] vt. 給……寫評論；對……發表評論

"He Knows the Struggles of the Elderly."“他了解老年人的艱難。”

Kenneth is the only child of two civil engineering13） professors at Columbia University in New York City. He lived his first 13 years in Newport Beach， California， where his parents were the principal caregivers for his grandfather. His grandmother also lived with them. The first sign of his grandfather's Alzheimer's came when they were vacationing in Japan and his grandfather took him for a walk in a park and got lost. His mother found them after about half an hour.

"Kenneth got really scared，" Kenneth's mother said. "He was four years old."

Kenneth took it upon himself to make14） life safer for his grandfather. When he was six and in kindergarten， an elderly friend of the family fell in the bathroom and was injured and badly burned. Worried about his grandfather， Kenneth came up with a "smart bathroom". Motion sensors would be installed in the bathroom tiles to detect a fall. When he was seven and his grandfather started having trouble remembering what medicine to take， Kenneth thought up the "smart medicine box" that would use sensors to tell a patient what medicines to take.

Both ideas received first place awards in the Outstanding Inventions contest held each year at Irvine Valley College in Irvine， California， for elementary through high school students.

"He's very close to his grandfather，" his mother said. "He knows the struggles of the elderly."

Kenneth and his grandfather share a love of singing. Kenneth sings a special song to his grandfather， who sometimes remembers and can sing along. It's about a road in China and seeing off an old friend.

"It's a song that my grandfather taught me when I was very young，" Kenneth said. "And in order to keep his memory alive I sing back to him the same song that he taught me when I was growing up."

Kenneth and his family moved to Manhattan two-and-a-half years ago. He's a junior at Horace Mann School in the Bronx15）.

Kenneth says he doesn't have much spare times these days， but what he has he spends on a wide array of activities. He's editor-in-chief of Cinemann Magazine， a school publication， and critiques16） movies at his own website， oneminutereviews.org.

肯尼斯是家中的獨子，父母都是紐約市哥倫比亞大學土木工程學的教授。從出生一直到13歲，他都生活在加利福尼亞州的紐波特比奇市，當時他的父母是他姥爺的主要看護者，他的姥姥也和他們生活在一起。姥爺首次出現老年癡呆的癥狀時，他們一家人都在日本度假，姥爺帶著他去一個公園散步，卻迷了路。他的媽媽過了大概半個小時才找到他們。

“肯尼斯真的嚇壞了，”肯尼斯的媽媽說，“那時他才四歲。”

肯尼斯自己決意要使姥爺的生活更加安全。當他六歲在上幼兒園時，他們家一位年長的朋友在衛生間摔倒并受了傷，還被嚴重地燙傷了。肯尼斯非常擔心姥爺，于是便發明了一個“智能衛生間”。衛生間的地磚上會裝上許多運動傳感器，用來監測是否有人摔倒。在他七歲時，姥爺開始記不清應該吃什么藥了，肯尼斯就發明了“智能藥箱”，它會利用傳感器來告訴病人該服用什么藥。

肯尼斯的這兩項發明都獲得了加利福尼亞州歐文市歐文河谷學院舉辦的年度“杰出發明競賽”（面向小學生及初、高中生）的一等獎。

“他和姥爺特別親，”他媽媽說，“他了解老年人的艱難。”

肯尼斯和姥爺都喜歡唱歌。肯尼斯經常唱一首特別的歌給姥爺聽，姥爺有時會記得這首歌，還會跟著他一起哼唱。那首歌是關于中國的一條古道以及送別一位老友的。

“這是我很小的時候姥爺教給我的一首歌，”肯尼斯說，“為了保持他的記憶力，我長大后又把他教我的這首歌唱給他聽。”

肯尼斯和家人在兩年半前（編注：英文原文發表于2015年3月）搬到了曼哈頓。他現在在布朗克斯區的賀拉斯曼中學讀高三。

肯尼斯說自己最近沒有多少空閑時間，但只要一有時間他就會用來參加各種各樣的活動。他在校刊《愛影人雜志》擔任主編，還在自己的網站oneminutereviews.org上面撰寫影評。