Child Anxiety Project with Microsoft
ME 113: Mechanical Engineering Design
ME 113 is Stanford's capstone mechanical design class. I worked on a team of five with Microsoft on a project about child anxiety, specifically the anxiety that occurs when children are separated from their parents or loved ones. Our task was to find a way to foster a continue connection between parent and child to help ease the pain and anxiety of separation.
Separation anxiety disorder affects 4% of children mostly between the ages of six and nine years old, which is why we chose this age as our target audience. Children affected experience a vague sense of something terrible happening to their parents or to themselves whenever they are apart. Based on our research, we found that a real time connection to a loved one would comfort the child and calm them down if and when they start feeling anxious. Since physical symptoms of anxiety are similar to those of general exercise, we felt that passive sensors for anxiety would give too many false positives. The design, therefore, includes a way for the child to actively indicate if he or she feels anxious. We also wanted to give the child control, by providing them with different buttons depending on the message they wanted to send. Additionally, by making the product customizable with interchangeable parts we give the child a sense of ownership over the product. In terms of making the device as child-friendly as possible, we kept in mind the fact that children are very sensory beings and wanted to appeal to as many senses as possible. We want the child to not only see the connection from the parent, but also feel it. We decided a vibration sensation coupled with a simple light up display would best reassure an anxious child.
To solve this problem, we created kidnextion. Our solution includes a number of looks-like hardware prototypes and works-like software prototypes. Each delivers on one or multiple criteria outlined above as crucial to the success of this product. On the hardware side, we began by 3D printing a wearable bracelet with interchangable links. From this first prototype we responded to feedback about the feel and texture of the bracelet by switching our material to silicone, and casting different bracelets in multiple 3D printed molds. These bracelets, which included the interface, had a much more inviting texture and feel to them, in addition to providing a tactile distraction from anxiety. Our second hardware prototype is a works-like prototype that includes an example circuit, logically controlled by an Arduino. This circuit allows us to model that the user interface would look like and act like with LED’s and buttons present to model how a child could interact with it.
Our software works-like prototypes allow a parent and child to experience what the interface might look like in a more finished product. We used Sifteo cubes to model the child’s interface, while an accompanying phone application was made for parents. Following the criteria discovered in our research, the child device allows for communication of happiness, love, and sadness, as well as the chance for the child to request an update on how long until the parent arrives back. Naturally, the parents phone application allows for the parent to view each of these child updates, as well as respond back with a smile or love of their own. The child can then receive the parent’s responses on his or her device.
Separation anxiety disorder affects 4% of children mostly between the ages of six and nine years old, which is why we chose this age as our target audience. Children affected experience a vague sense of something terrible happening to their parents or to themselves whenever they are apart. Based on our research, we found that a real time connection to a loved one would comfort the child and calm them down if and when they start feeling anxious. Since physical symptoms of anxiety are similar to those of general exercise, we felt that passive sensors for anxiety would give too many false positives. The design, therefore, includes a way for the child to actively indicate if he or she feels anxious. We also wanted to give the child control, by providing them with different buttons depending on the message they wanted to send. Additionally, by making the product customizable with interchangeable parts we give the child a sense of ownership over the product. In terms of making the device as child-friendly as possible, we kept in mind the fact that children are very sensory beings and wanted to appeal to as many senses as possible. We want the child to not only see the connection from the parent, but also feel it. We decided a vibration sensation coupled with a simple light up display would best reassure an anxious child.
To solve this problem, we created kidnextion. Our solution includes a number of looks-like hardware prototypes and works-like software prototypes. Each delivers on one or multiple criteria outlined above as crucial to the success of this product. On the hardware side, we began by 3D printing a wearable bracelet with interchangable links. From this first prototype we responded to feedback about the feel and texture of the bracelet by switching our material to silicone, and casting different bracelets in multiple 3D printed molds. These bracelets, which included the interface, had a much more inviting texture and feel to them, in addition to providing a tactile distraction from anxiety. Our second hardware prototype is a works-like prototype that includes an example circuit, logically controlled by an Arduino. This circuit allows us to model that the user interface would look like and act like with LED’s and buttons present to model how a child could interact with it.
Our software works-like prototypes allow a parent and child to experience what the interface might look like in a more finished product. We used Sifteo cubes to model the child’s interface, while an accompanying phone application was made for parents. Following the criteria discovered in our research, the child device allows for communication of happiness, love, and sadness, as well as the chance for the child to request an update on how long until the parent arrives back. Naturally, the parents phone application allows for the parent to view each of these child updates, as well as respond back with a smile or love of their own. The child can then receive the parent’s responses on his or her device.
Final Presentation Poster
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For a further description of the project, as well as renderings, pictures of hardware prototypes, and a video of the software prototypes, please watch the video below.