There are 55 million people living with dementia worldwide. For most of them, the greatest fear — and the greatest wish — is the same: to remain independent for as long as possible.
A London-based social enterprise has just won a £1 million prize for technology that could make that possible.
**CrossSense Ltd** has been awarded the **Longitude Prize on Dementia**, a £4.42 million initiative funded by the Alzheimer's Society and Innovate UK, designed to support the development of personalised technology tools that help people with dementia live independently longer. The prize was announced in March 2026.
CrossSense's solution is a pair of **AI-powered smart glasses** — worn like ordinary glasses, but containing an AI assistant named **Wispy** that understands the wearer's environment and gently guides them through it.
## What Wispy Can Do
For someone with dementia, ordinary life can become a maze of unfamiliar objects, forgotten tasks, and moments of frightening confusion. CrossSense's glasses aim to turn that maze into something manageable.
Using augmented reality and computer vision, **Wispy** can:
- **Identify household objects** — "That is your medication. Take it with water." - **Guide users through daily tasks** step by step, with verbal cues and floating text overlaid on the wearer's vision - **Engage in gentle conversation**, aiding reminiscence and reducing isolation - **Recognise hazards** in the home environment and alert the wearer - **Adapt over time** as the user's condition changes
The technology uses multisensory cues — words, shapes, colours, and sounds — to meet people where they are and help them navigate confidently.
In testing, participants showed significant improvements in their ability to name household items — one of the key cognitive tasks affected in early-to-mid stage dementia.
## Why This Matters
Dementia is one of the defining health challenges of our time. In the UK alone, around 982,000 people live with dementia — a figure expected to surpass 1 million this year. Globally, the numbers are staggering: 55 million people, rising to an estimated 78 million by 2030.
For many people in the early-to-mid stages of the disease, the current choice is stark: move into a care home prematurely, or struggle at home with limited support. CrossSense aims to change that calculus.
"The potential for these glasses to help people with dementia live safely at home for longer is truly remarkable," said a Longitude Prize spokesperson.
The **Alzheimer's Society** backed the prize specifically because technology-based independence tools remain critically underdeveloped compared to medical treatments — and because the human cost of early institutionalisation is enormous, both financially and emotionally.
## What's Coming Next
CrossSense plans to launch a **smartphone version** of their AI assistant by the end of 2026, making the core functionality accessible to anyone with a phone before the full smart-glasses system becomes available.
The **smart glasses themselves** — designed to look like ordinary eyewear, not medical devices — are expected to be available in **early 2027**, following a four-week pilot in people's homes planned for late 2026. The pricing model is a monthly subscription of around £50, with the glasses themselves priced up to £1,000 (a cost the team expects to fall over time).
For the millions of families watching a loved one lose their independence piece by piece, that timeline cannot come soon enough.
Technology rarely solves everything. But sometimes it can give someone a few extra years in their own home, in their own life, with their own sense of self.
That is no small thing. 🧠💙
*Sources: The Guardian (March 18, 2026) · Longitude Prize on Dementia · CrossSense Ltd · Alzheimer's Society · Innovate UK · Laing Buisson News*
