His alarm sounded, followed by three pings to let him know that many messages were waiting. Jack rolled over, grabbing his phone off the stand and heading for the toilet. Blinking, he palmed his right eye. It was hazy, like a filmy shower door.

Taking a seat, Jack's stomach rumbled and a tension headache was working up his neck. The flu? he wondered, but a quick review of his phone's health sensors didn't show anything of concern. They weren't infallible, but they'd catch any substantial temperature increase.

Jack thumbed up the first message and squinted. Rsrv @ Ice House 8:30. Dinner with his brother, Earl. He flipped it to his calendar and pulled up the next as his stomach made a fuss. Package printed, ready for shipping. Track via Y8DK848785984. He tapped the code and it shot offscreen to his tracking software. His stomach emptied so hard he shivered.

While medicine looks for both the cause and cure of dementia, millions of elderly around the world begin feeling the symptoms every year. New technologies, some existing now and some maturing towards consumer products, offer not only real-time information, they also include ways to inject this information into human interaction with their surroundings. Visual overlays in Google Glass, context aware assistive services such as Google Now, and our ever-present GPS location awareness can combine to provide supportive interactions with our world.

While these advancements are being developed for mass consumer adoption, they can also provide support for individuals who live with limitations such as dementia. I've been working on some ideas on how our elderly might use these devices, struggling to get traction beyond what is easily described and would be used by individuals, whether healthy or dealing with dementia. Then I recently heard about VocalID, a group collecting a range of human voices for the use of those without a voice of their own. In the past, individuals unable to speak were limited to a very small set of digital voices - most of them identical to the voice used by Stephen Hawking. To provide semi-unique voices, Dr Rupal Patel founded the Communication Analysis and Design Laboratory (CadLab) and the VocalID organization - the latter which collects 2-3 hours of donor voices to provide options for individuals suffering from severe speech impairment.

Jester slid the door open and headed for the pool. Nothing like baking in the sun to cure a hangover - if your shades are dark enough and the splif is big enough. His feet danced a bit on the hot concrete, but it still felt good when the rays hit his back.

Sucking in some smoke, he held it in his lungs an extra few seconds before coughing it out. The chemicals hadn't hit yet, but his body knew to relax - help was on the way.

Sim wiped his face with a barely damp cloth, the dry edges scratching at his stubble. Each time he did, the act wasted some of his hydration allowance.  But it felt good. It felt real. It was something he would have done back home, back on Earth.

"Sunlight." The room lights brightened and adjusted the spectrum. Dingy white walls, furniture and cloth changed hue with an orange-red tint.  He looked around, taking in his quarters and trying not to shiver at the closeness of the walls.