Hello all!
In this blogpost, we will give you a headup of all the things that have happened last weeks!
After last post weeks, we started developing further our breathing game concept and prototype. While researching and prototyping, we found out that the piezo element microphone that we used for our breathing sensor was fairly unstable and not accurate. Therefore, we decided to focus on a more physical sensor: a band that is tied around the user’s chest and measures its capacity. First we decided to build the construction ourselves, which consists of a piezo element that alters the voltage level when curved. We made a construction that makes the element bend when the chest of the user is increasing in volume.
This construction was not always working properly, so when Loes came up with an electro-conducting fabric, we decided to implement this fabric in our prototype. The fabric was more reliable than the construction mentioned above, but still, we felt we needed a professional sensor or system to capture the breathing of the user accurately. We have been in contact with several innovative companies to talk about implementing their sensor in our project.
In this sprint, we have been doing a series of co-creation sessions with people who have suffered from psychosis. It is very nice and interesting to talk to people who have experienced psychosis in person, because it communicates the idea of psychosis much more vividly and clearly. A few things stood out of these meetings. In the first meeting, we talked about having something (like a digital application) to distract from a stress situation, as well as an app that can give structure to the life of a post-psychotic. The idea of a breathing game also appealed to them. In the second session we learnt the smartphone seemed to be an important object of these people, for different reasons (structuring life, keeping relationships, music, etc.). In the second half of this meeting, they offered some ideas for digital solutions that would improve their daily life. One idea is an application that allows the user to orientate his thoughts. It works as follows: the user can set up thinking paths that occur to him more often (perhaps with a therapist), in order to review the appropriate path in a situation of distress or delusion. Another idea is an application that allows the user to capture moments by photo-/videocamera of the smartphone, or by text, spoken message or even a song that reminds him of a certain situation. The user can review these moments and use them as a distraction, an escape out of the situation in which the user feels uncomfortable or distressed.
After the last meeting, we decided to develop the thought-organizing app. We have to say that the idea of the breathing mechanism is still in our minds, because the people from Arkin were very excited about that as well. At this point, there are a few tasks we are working on. We are going to develop the application for iOS systems, so Gerdjan is learning to program for this operating system. Meanwhile, we are making designs and structures for the app, and to make the application support the thinking patterns of the user optimally, we are interviewing several psychologists.
Keep you posted!
Games4Therapy