Improving caregiver sleep and infant safety through multi-sensory design

Baby monitors are basic radio systems that help caregivers monitor infants from a distance. However, there are few on the market today that paint a holistic picture of an infant’s health. Traditional baby monitors require a caregiver to watch a camera or listen for alerts, limiting the activities caregivers can do. In addition, caregivers are often woken up unnecessarily throughout the night. Instead, the Soft Hand Holder wearable baby monitor provides more meaningful information by monitoring and recording heart rate, temperature, movement, emotion, and sound. This sensory information is then sent to a wearable wristband that notifies the caregiver of the infant's status through a combination of visual, auditory, and haptic alerts. Alert severity is determined by assessing the aggregate sensory information. 

SCHEMATICS

Two wearable devices

The Soft Hand Holder consists of two devices with five sensors on the infant device and three output modules on the caregiver device. Two Arduino boards support system processing. The devices communicate through a Wi-Fi module. The infant Arduino monitors the infant’s heart rate, temperature, movement, emotion, and sound. This information is then sent to the caregiver Arduino over Wi-Fi. The caregiver Arduino receives the information and triggers the correct modules to alert the individual wearing the device via sound, vibration, and a visual display of information on a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen.