Efforts are underway in Japan to develop artificial intelligence-based tools that will help detect dementia at an early stage, including one that analyzes how people walk.

Those tools are expected to lower risks of elderly people roaming around or failing to notice that they have the condition and see a doctor early, easing concerns of those people and their families.

Since February, Ridgelinez, a Fujitsu unit that offers consulting services, has been working with the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center and AI startup Noel to develop a system that will detect characteristics seen in the way people with dementia walk.