Luna: Using Wearable Technology to Improve the Sleeping Experience for Newborns and Parents
Goal
Employ wearable technology to assist parents of newborns monitor babies’ vitals while sleeping.
Background
With the aim of gaining insight into the possibilities of assisting babies and mothers through wearable and digital technology, this project started with a series of research questions:
What specific task in the sleeping routine do parents of newborns need most help with?
How does the bed time ritual for babies at parents?
What is the part parents struggle the most at night?
Translational Research | Prof. Michael Roller, MDes
University of Cincinnati, DAAP
Timeline
January - May 2017
Discover
Ethnographic Research
User research activities such as shadowing and interviewing were conducting in order to get a better understanding of the sleep routine. Additionally, an online survey was created to get a larger set of data from parents from around the globe.
Card Sorting
A card sorting activity was conducted with 10 parents in order to understand the different elements and objects they and their babies interacted with during bedtime ritual, also the multiple spaces where they performed the bedtime tasks.
Identify
Data Visualization
The experience map below was created with the purpose of summarizing and visualizing the data collected through primary and secondary research. The average bedtime ritual amongst parents and babies is graphically represented in the journey map below. Further, it emphasizes in the specific activities and the quality of the experience for both, parents and babies.
Design
Interactive Prototype
Users needed to get better quality sleep while keeping their babies safe. The design approach was to create a system that allowed to sleep for longer hours while reducing the times they had to check-in their babies. Through a heartbeat, breathing and temperature sensor, babies' vitals will be tracked and deliver to the parents' mobile app. Luna, the app, will make a particular sound when an irregular sign on the baby is detected.
Electronic Prototyping
Used Arduino to build a physical prototype. A pulse sensor was placed on to an onesie in a position where the sensor could easily read heartbeat signals.
Refinement
The prototype was tested with 6 parents, using dummies to test usability of the wearable on the onesie along with the interactive prototype for the app. Below is the final working prototype.