It has pedals and handlebars like a bike, but this one just might unlock new ways of dealing with dementia.

Designed specifically for Alzheimer’s patients, the BikeAround was developed in Sweden and uses Google Street View to take users on a tour.

Users sit in front of a domed screen while a projector shows a street from a computer, enabling them to reminisce. 

It can be a street in their home town or for immigrants, their home country.

(Susan Burgess/CBC)

”People are blown away because they sometimes think they could never go back,” says Becky Helmer, a program facilitator at The Glebe Centre, which is the first in Canada to use BikeAround.

One resident biked through parts of Sweden and helped him regain some of his language skills.

Local researchers are interested to work with The Glebe Centre to study the effects it has on those with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.