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In short
The course Engineering Design provided the first opportunity to work in multidisciplinary teams within my bachelor of Industrial Design, to ultimately design and create an aid for personal, in-house use, for people with an impairment or disability, or for elderly people. We took this opportunity seriously and managed to successfully develop an aid for tackling distress experienced by children with autism.
grade
collaboration
course
8.4
Job Müller
Britt Janssen
Rutger de Koning
Sander van der Leek
Tom Rademakers
Engineering Design
Claut
It was found that one of the symptoms which an individual with autism might show is hyperreactivity to sensory input. These symptoms make daily life challenging. Extreme distress may be experienced due to small changes, too much new information or sensory impulses. This distress can happen anywhere, even at home, and lead to a meltdown. When an individual is having a meltdown, they may experience shallow breathing, heart palpitation, and an elevated heart rate. Many individuals require lifelong support from friends, family and other caregivers. Therefore, Claut aims to increase the independence of this target group.
Autism sufferers experience stress as a result of overstimulation in combination with a higher sensitivity to stimuli (e.g., by sounds). During this process, the person has no room for reflection on what is happening to them, since they feel overwhelmed by the stress. Experts think people with autism recognize later than others that they are experiencing stress, which results in an increase in symptoms and more frequent occurrence of stress episodes. This is due to the fact that autism sufferers are less likely to understand their own bodies and behaviour. Therefore, Claut aims at earlier recognition of stress symptoms and increased body awareness during such stress episodes.
Early recognition of stress
Increased body awareness
Reduction of symptoms
Early recognition of stress
Increased body awareness
Reduction of symptoms
Early recognition of stress
In order to help with earlier recognition of stress symptoms of autism sufferers during meltdowns as a result of overstimulation, Claut makes use of one of the most frequently occurring symptoms. Therefore, Claut measures the user's heart rate continuously with a wrist-worn heart rate sensor. As soon as the user's measured heart rate exceeds a certain limit, indicating stress, a wireless signal is sent from the bracelet to the cloud.
Increased body awareness
The wireless signal received by the cloud activates the heartbeat display. The user's heartbeat is displayed to increase awareness of what is happening to their body. If the user's heart rate is high, a fast alternation between a big and small heart is shown. As the user calms down, this alternation switches to a lower speed to indicate the stress symptoms are starting to decrease.
Reduction of symptoms
Although the heartbeat display offers a distracting visualization which might shift the user's focus from their overstimulating surroundings to the cloud, Claut employs another way to reduce stress. This is done by offering a breathing exercise which is based on a 4-4-4 breathing method. During this method, the user is guided through the 3 4-second intervals in which the user either breathes in, out or holds their breath. The guidance is offered by LEDs which indicate when the user should move on to the next interval. However, to offer tangible fidgeting aspects, guidance is also offered in a non-technological way by using beads on a string to count down the seconds of each interval. By doing so, a sense of self-control is enhanced throughout the exercise.
Learning points
In this project, I took on the responsibility of ensuring a clear focus on the design goal. As a team member with expertise in this area in contrast to the others, while being a multidisciplinary project, I consistently challenged and questioned ideas within the group to assess their added value to the overall concept. This critical approach significantly influenced the development of the design concept and its successful implementation in the final report. This project served as a validation of the value of an industrial designer, often being neglected
by other domains. In fact, being able to effectively manage a multidisciplinary team, ensure that efforts remain user-centric, and translate user needs into creative solutions has proven a key strength as a designer, broadening my scope of the possibilities in Industrial Design. Also, the value of communicating ideas has become apparent, providing a remarkable perspective on the value of creativity and aesthetics for business and entrepreneurship efforts, for example, relevant when conveying ideas to stakeholders.