Atemo
OVERVIEW
Atemo is an assistive device that seeks to leverage the use of sound-to-emotion technology to improve conversation and social interaction between neurotypicals and people with Asperger’s syndrome by translating emotions into haptic feedback and helping them to respond accordingly.
DURATION
PROJECT CATEGORY
2 Months
Inclusive Design | User Research | UX
MY ROLE
Research, Synthesis and Analysis | Ideation | Designing watch screens | Developing the UX of the watch and the application, Plotting the technological functionality aspects.
--the people
ASPERGER'S SYNDROME: A STRUGGLE TO FIT IN
Asperger's syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and non verbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. They mimic actions to fit into social situations which often aren't the most natural and make them stand out resulting in “labeling”.
FLY ON THE WALL STUDY
Although it may seem that people with Asperger's have no challenges, studies have shown otherwise. There are a myriad of challenges that essentially boil down to the attribute of understanding and expressing emotions.
People with Asperger's don't understand others in a social interaction setting. In a way they do not get ‘Neurotypicals’ i.e social nuances, communication patterns, tone of the conversation etc. However they mimic their actions etc. to fit in with society at large. In a quest to do so they fail at expressing their own emotions as well.
This leads to excessive mental toll on both, the Aspie and their family/friends, and hampers their relationship causing a two way communication barrier.
UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONS: A TWO WAY COMMUNICATION BARRIER
To better understand the problems faced by people with Asperger’s, we dug into anecdotes and real life anecdotes shared by Aspie’s (people with Asperger’s) and their families (Neurotypicals).
--the problem
ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS: BUT NOT FOR ASPIE'S
The prime reason why communication is difficult to fathom for an Aspie is that it is a complex blend of both verbal and non-verbal cues. A conversation consists of words, tone, body language, gestures, expressions etc. Both neurotypical and Aspie use verbal and non verbal cues for communicating, but the Aspie but the Aspie is primarily able to comprehend the words only.
PROBLEM CYCLE
People with Asperger’s sometimes find it difficult to express themselves emotionally and socially.
For example, they may:
-
Have difficulty understanding gestures, facial expressions or tone of voice
-
At times be very literal in what they say and can have difficulty understanding jokes, metaphor and sarcasm.
--insight driven
THE CONVERSATION FLOW: USER JOURNEY
_gif.gif)
We zoomed into the flow of communication and its cognitive constraints by juxtaposing the journey of a conversation, from the perspective of a neurotypical and an Aspie. The journey has been divided into 5 stages: Awareness, Attention, Perception, Decision Making, and Action.
The behavior of a neurotypical and a person with Asperger’s mirror each other during the first stage, Awareness, as the use of emotional quotient is lesser than the use of basic observational skills. The next three steps, Attention, Perception, and Decision Making, are dependent upon each other. Both the neurotypical and the person with Asperger’s struggle with it slightly, the latter more so than the former. The last stage, Action, is a tumultuous road for a person with Asperger’s. It has multiple elements that are built upon practice, improvisation, and intuition. People with Asperger’s fare well in this step as far as they rely on their practice. Once improvisation comes into play, they get confused.
WHAT DO THEY DESIRE
NEED STATEMENT
"To improve conversation and social interaction among people with Asperger’s and their peers, family members, strangers, etc. by making the emotions of one of them more easily comprehensible to another."
PERSONAE
Considering that the communication barrier exists on both sides, two personae were constructed: 1 for a person with Asperger’s, and 1 for a neurotypical. The subsequent solution was ideated keeping both these personae in mind, such that their needs are met and their frustrations addressed.
CONCEPT IDEATION
With the key problem areas noted and the user set defined, a definite clarity was established as to what issues the solution needs to address. Ideation was commenced taking three principles/scenarios in mind:
_gif.gif)
It was decided that the end solution should ensure discreteness and subtlety, and help people with Asperger’s gain independence and enhance their social skills.
The ideation took on a mostly linear approach: With every idea, its positive and negative points were noted. The positive points were taken on as design direction, while the negative points were converted into design direction by flipping them.
--the solution
ATEMO
Though (#6) the basic idea was finalized out of all possible ideations, there was still refinement required in terms of both form and function. To achieve this contemporary technologies were referred to help facilitate the concept. For form, various objects were thought of, including badge pin, spectacles, watch etc. Finally a wristwatch was selected as it provided the most discreteness and convenience for usage. A watch that will capture sound waves and extract the emotions from the tone, and relay this information to the Aspie using vibration patterns.
This watch comes supported with a mobile application, that facilitates easier adaptation and remembrance of the vibration patterns. It also tracks your Pulse rate, Blood Pressure, etc. and translates that information into ‘stress’ and ‘no stress.’ This information can be shared to the closest friends and family members upon the consent of the person with Asperger’s. This helps establish a two way transfer of information, which assists in bridging the communication barrier that exists among them.
_gif.gif)
TECHNOLOGICAL FUNCTIONALITY
Atemo works on an integration of a wristwatch and mobile application that uses five different assets of technology to deliver its process to people with Asperger’s and their friends and family members in a seamless manner.
_gif.gif)
1. Capturing of audio
The wristwatch is embedded with two microphones in its extended arms that capture the audio waves to be further processed.
2. Translated into vibration
The audio waves captured are then bifurcated into metadata in terms of environment (noise), content (words), and emotion(tone.) The emotion is then further analyzed, and stored in the content history to be referred to and made patterns out of. With the help of the previously stored data and machine learning, emotional classification is done and the subsequent unique vibration pattern is used as an output.
3. Information relayed to application (Person with Asperger’s)
A supporting application interface has been built to help people with Asperger’s learn what every unique vibration pattern means. Other than that, the application also provides hands-on assistance as to what to do in case of every emotion exhibited by the communicator.
4. Capturing of health statistics
Throughout, important health statistics of the wearer (person with Asperger’s) is recorded by the wristwatch, just as it is done in contemporary fitness smartwatches. This information is then processed to find out the stress levels of the wearer (person with Asperger’s.)
5. Information relayed to application (Friends/Family members)
This information is then sent to the application of Friends and Family members, to whom the person with Asperger’s has given the permission to view their health details. If the stress levels are high, the friends and family members are notified via an alert. This helps them understand and empathise better, hence subsequently bridging the existing gap of communication.
PROTOTYPE
To better communicate the concept with everyone, prototyping was done to bring the idea closest to realisation. Sketches and wireframes served as a skeleton for the prototype. The total prototyping process can be bifurcated into two: 1 for wristwatch, 1 for mobile application.
FORM EXPLORAION
With the idea of ideating a watch the product’s functions and the aspiration of the user were mapped which resulted in the guiding principles for the form and further development. The attributes selected were:
-
Easily Perceivable
-
Instant Feedback
-
Camouflaged
-
Subtle
-
Tactile
WRISTWATCH
FEATURES
Considering the user needs and demands the watch encompasses some special features like, Retina Display, Sesitive Vibration Sensation, Emergency Hover Button.
EXPLODED VIEW
WATCH FACE
The watch screen contains a watch face which displays the time, date and any new notifications. The UI has been designed to make the user understand and capture the information in a single glance. Next in the application window three main applications are incorporated that are the Atemo assist application which provides customization for the watch itself, the health status app for continuous monitoring of the health and notification for easy access.
APPLICATION INTEGRATION: SEEMLESS LEARNING + CARE CONNECT
The watch comes with an aiding mobile application, to facilitate the learning of haptic patterns and their associated emotion by the Aspie. For parents and close friends of people with Asperger's, it also acts as a source for when the aspie is feeling a strong emotion and is unable to express the same.
An information architecture and wireframes were made to serve as a skeleton for the application. Once the flow gained structure, the wireframes were converted into high fidelity prototypes.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
APPLICATION SCREENS
FUTURE ROADMAP
The project's aim was to aid people with Asperger's with assistive technology that essentially breaks down emotional cues
into consumable pieces of information and readily utilizes preset responses. Due to the pandemic, the resources were limited and being unable to interact with people with Asperger's syndrome had hindered the primary research phases. Despite all odds, the reliance was on secondary research and design analysis methods to figure out the best possible solution. The systemic approach of the integration of digital and physical products was brought about by the technological advancement in the field of psycho-acoustics, IoT and wearable technology. Although, the scope of this project being conceptual, we had identified research gaps and challenges that we will need to tackle to refine this concept. We have already started reaching out to forums, and communities of people with Asperger's to garner leads that will help us resume this project.
