Eric Paulos' CS 160 Interface Design Showcase
39 brilliant student teams presented their CS 160: Interface Design projects in the Jacobs Spring Design Showcase on Wednesday, May 4th, 2016. Teams were challenged to design novel smartphone and smartwatch applications focused on health and medical themes. Students worked in teams of five over the semester using an iterative HCI design process alongside stakeholders and users to develop these inspirational new applications.
Check out the project highlights below, and full descriptions and videos on the CS 160 website.
CS 160 was led by BCNM's own Eric Paulos, with Jingyi LI, Shana Hu, Diane Wang, Jasper O’Leary, and Peggy Chi serving as GSIs, and Sarina Gross, Matthew Waliman, Neil Kumar serving as Readers.
MedAgenda
Smart wear meets health care.
MedAgenda is a smartphone and smartwatch app that helps nurses take better care of their patients. MedAgenda modernizes current hospital technology through integration with the hospital’s electronic record system to bring patient to do lists and reminders directly into a nurse's hands.
Pillpal
Everything is under control.
Pillpal is a mobile and smartwatch app that allows women to monitor the effects of birth control on their body through builtin sensors on the smartwatch. It analyzes the user’s hormone levels to give them accurate and timely information about their body. Pillpal also allows users to request refills for birth control and other contraceptives, all in the comfort of their own homes. Shipping is quick and stressfree.
First Steps
Find yourself with First Steps
First Steps is an Android application aiding those who suffer from alcohol addiction. By providing an easy and efficient method to finding local AA meetings, users are more inclined to attend and participate in their AA community. First Steps allows users to search for AA meetings by location, time, day, and even by average age or number of attendees. We rely on usergenerated feedback to review meetings, giving us a rich database of detailed AA meeting information to improve every user’s experience. Personally, a user may save an unlimited number of AA meetings for future reminders and smartwatch notifications.
Scratch That Habit!
Don’t scratch that itch, scratch that habit!
The physical symptoms of eczema are a burden on their own, but their impact on a person’s self-esteem can be even greater. We hope that by helping people develop the habits that eczema management often necessitates, we can also relieve them of the mental burden of a physical condition.
Pensieve
Forget the Worries. Remember Yourself.
The idea behind Pensieve is to create an application that helps dementia patients in a number of ways. Most obviously, it reminds patients about daily tasks and gives family members the ability to view and update the patient's schedule. But we also intend for Pensieve to be a tool to help families better take care of their loved ones that are effected by dementia, and help strengthen the patient's support group. We do this by giving family members real-time updates about the status of the patient, allowing them to more effectively organize help. By tracking how well the patient remembers to do their daily tasks, we can provide family members and medical professionals with valuable data about the progression of the patient's symptoms, hopefully allowing them to tailor treatment specifically to the individual.
Balance
Mood Quantified.
Balance aims to use the advanced tracking features of the smart phone and smart watch to help users and their doctors understand the state of the patients clinical depression. Balance uses metrics like heart rate, diet, ambient light, and several other data streams to understand and evaluate the users clinical depression. We use this information to help the see how their mood is changing, and then export this information in a clean format to their doctor to help treat the patient. Balance doesn’t try to treat clinical depression, but track it so trained medical professionals can.
A Buddie
A comforting hand wherever and whenever you need it.
A Buddie helps parents to encourage autistic kids to complete tasks that they are nervous about with games, trivia, and a reminder system.
Ally
Alzheimer's with Autonomy.
Ally is an application that provides an Alzheimer’s caregivers peace of mind, even when they’re not with their patients. It enables caregivers to be promptly notified when a loved one becomes lost, confused, or simply needs help. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. Dementia is a broad category that includes many aspects of cognitive impairment, especially memory loss and judgment. Caring for someone with Alzheimer’s can be overwhelming. Unlike our competitors, Ally is free, designed for modern smartphones, and combines 4 essential features: caregiver profiles, a patient help button, patient location tracking, and medication reminders. We are confident that Ally is the most accessible and powerful Alzheimer's assistance app on the market.
Have?
STD Testing That Doesn't Suck
When you have concerns about your sexual health, have? Experts are there to set your mind at ease. Just enter your symptoms and upload a photo, and let your Experts take care of the rest.
Glucose BondsM
Being together can be pretty sweet
A mobile and wear social app designed for caretakers with diabetic children. We target the fundamental problem of getting the proper connections and resources to deal with many of the underlying struggles of having a diabetic child. This includes, but not limited to: developing close connections, reassuring child’s normalcy, and understanding insurance policies. We solve this problem by offering several features that allow the user to connect with the community. One major feature is our mentoring system that allows more experienced caretakers to mentor those who are newer. Other features include a forum section and a generalized education section. You should not feel alone when taking care of your diabetic child. We provide the resources for you to have the strong personal community to support you the whole way.
Good Vibes
Helping teens shake off depression one Good Vibe at a time.
Good Vibes is a mobile and smartwatch application that connects teenagers age 13-19 who are suffering from depression. In the mobile application teenagers can enter their daily mood and a status update, and browse through updates from their community. The mobile application also has a “Beat Lab” where a teen can compose a custom vibration pattern to send to a peer in need. With Good Vibes, if a user is having a bad day at school, they can ask for help with just a tap of a button. Once a cry for help is sent people who are connected with the user will receive a notification that the user is requesting support and can send personal messages with a custom vibration to the user. The teen can then directly feel the vibrations and read the notifications on their smartwatch without having to reach for their mobile device.
BreezyM
All is whale with Breezy.
Breezy is an application that ensures the safety of children struggling with asthma attacks, and provides peace of mind to the caregivers who watch over them. The child’s smartwatch constantly reports their vitals to the caretaker’s phone, and sends an emergency alert if it detects any anomalies that could signal the onset of an asthma attack. In addition to this automatic sensing, the child has the option to send an alert through the watch manually. If an attack is reported the watch provides tools to alert bystanders and breathing exercises to stabilize and calm down the child. Meanwhile the caretaker is alerted with their child’s location and current vitals so that they can quickly respond to the situation.
Dispatch
Drop the pager.
Dispatch is an application created to improve the current mode of communication between doctors, nurses, and technicians in a hospital setting. Despite having smartphones and smartwatches, doctors are still using pagers to communicate with their hospital staff. We are hoping that our application will replace the pager, by streamlining communication between hospital staff members in a way that is easy to use and stress-free. Specifically, we are aiming to revolutionize the communication process by incorporating additional flexibility, such as marking messages by priority, that will satisfy the needs of both the sender and recipient.
Calmify
Find your calm.
Calmify is a mobile and smartwatch app providing support for users with panic and anxiety disorders. The watch guides users through a calming breathing exercise and allows them to call for help during a panic attack, either from emergency services or a specified contact. The phone interface allows users to log their panic attacks and share them with a community of others who share the same experiences. Users can anonymously send support for each other's journeys, creating an environment where everyone can feel a little less alone as they find their calm.
Spark: A CBT Diary
Spark up your life, go stress free.
Depression is often linked with feelings of discouragement, and inactivity. A Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) diary is used to help patients analyze their feelings, and work through negative thought processes. We have enhanced the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy diary by linking it with an activity and mood tracker to help the user have a more indepth analysis of their progress. Quick mood logging and diary launch through the watch app allow the user to conveniently access their diary at any time, or just make quick notes on mood alone. A detailed analytics page gives the user a graphical view of progress. By creating an app for the CBT diary, we hope to make it a more integrative and interactive experience in daily life.
BetterCare
We care because you care.
The BetterCare app is an app designed to ease the work life of caregivers. It allows caregivers to keep track of individual patient records and their needs, such as medication, appointments, emergency contacts, and special instructions. It also offers step-by-step instructions for safely executing emergency procedures (displayed on smartwatch for hands-free use). This app efficiently and easily schedule and organize his/her time around all the patients. Since the watch is always on the user as they work, it is effective for delivering timed reminders. Further, the app will be optimized for handling emergency situations with smartphone- smartwatch communication. Caretakers for elderly patients may encounter stressful health situations more than they would anticipate. Using the hands-free functionality of the watch, the app could provide one-touch access to emergency contacts and common life-saving procedure instructions. For example, when selected on the phone, the watch could display step-by-step CPR instructions or instructions for disinfecting and bandaging a wound.
Rayse
Rayse yourself.
Rayse is an app for people with Seasonal Affective Disorder that helps its users track how much light they’re getting throughout the day. The app sends users encouraging notifications to make sure they’re on track to meet their daily light quota and congratulates users when they meet their goals. Users can also connect Google Calendar with rayse to see how light can be integrated into their schedules.
Happy Mom
Making happy moms happier.
Our application addresses the need to alleviate some of the stresses women go through during their pregnancy, especially for first-time pregnancies. We gather food data and nausea levels daily through the smartwatch interface, and use this information to create a personal and customizable resource to help expecting mothers figure out what daily habits and remedies work best for them. Additionally, this application allows mothers to look up tips for preventing and relieving discomforts or pains related to pregnancy. These tips can be saved in a personalized list, or set as reminders that alert the user at specified intervals throughout the day.
Pear
Prepear for your first pregnancy together!
Pear provides a shared interface that educates and helps firsttime expecting parents share the responsibilities of pregnancy. The application provides users with monthbymonth lists that are populated with userselected pregnancy advice and custom tasks that partners can create. Pear’s shared task lists allow partners to assign tasks to each other and notifies the other when one has been completed; the checklist is also accessible by both phone and watch to increase accessibility. By providing an interface that facilitates communication, delegation, and access to medical advice, pear will decrease the anxiety that pregnancy is be associated with.
Sun Safe!
Save your kid’s skin the easy way.
Many people, especially kids, do not wear sunscreen. Additionally, many put on sunscreen initially, but stay out in the sun and do not reapply after the sunscreen has worn off. This can cause detrimental effects on the skin and even potentially skin cancer in the future if not dealt with. This app teaches kids healthy sunscreen habits and reminds them to put on sunscreen and reapply as necessary. Using location services to grab information, Sun Safe! will remind you when to reapply sunscreen and what kind of weather it will be for the day.
Brush
Kid-tastic Dental Hygiene!
This app incentivizes and motivates children(ages 4-11) to brush their teeth twice a day and furthermore ensures that they are brushing for the right amount of time and using the correct technique. The app also allows parents to keep track of their child’s recorded tooth brushing habits. Dental issues seem like an invisible threat to children and they, unless carefully monitored by their parents, could be sloppy with brushing their teeth or avoid doing it the requisite two times a day. As a result of bad practices and negligence towards proper dental hygiene in their younger years, many people develop poor dental habits, that carry on later into their lives which causes them a great deal of pain and large medical bills.
BeeCalm
Your safe space to overcome panic attacks.
BeeCalm is a set of resources to help people in the midst of a panic attack to calm their mind and body. BeeCalm is designed having taken into account the following two facts about panic attacks: panic attacks can happen anytime and anywhere, and different calming techniques work for different people. BeeCalm's resources are available on both phone and watch form factors, so users can utilize whichever is more apt for the situation they are experiencing the panic attack in. BeeCalm's exercises (breathing exercises, mantras, and tapping exercises, to name a few), are diverse in their sensory engagement (visual, auditory, tactile), and have a variety of customization options that allows users to quickly access whichever resources work best for them.
instaid
A safety net of doctors, wherever and whenever you need it.
In brief, instaid is a virtual “is there a doctor in the house?” alert system. The app allows users to rapidly request volunteer emergency services via one gesture. It is especially useful when a user is in an unfamiliar place, or where normal medical service systems may not respond quickly enough; for example, while on a Bart train. One can input their medical information and history, and have it automatically added to their medical request. This gives the volunteers context to better understand the current injury. Volunteers include doctors, nurses, and EMTs that are medically certified. The app also includes local equivalents for 911 in other countries to provide travelers a quick way to reach official services. instaid aims to provide medical help to the most adventurous people, whenever and wherever they need it.
PollenFlow
Don't let pollen stop your flow! Keeping allergens out of your nose and sneezing out of your life.
After one of the creators realized that there wasn't a good solution available to help his father prevent his allergies, the seed for PollenFlow was planted. PollenFlow utilizes the powers of your phone, watch, and the people around you to paint a full picture of the pollen in your area. PollenFlow allows you to check pollen levels in the cities in your area, drop pins to signify high pollen on the landmarks where your allergies are triggered, check where other users reported high pollen levels, and receive notifications when you are entering high pollen area. For travelling, active individuals who suffer from allergies, this app helps you navigate unfamiliar terrain in a way that keeps your allergies down so you have the energy to do what you want.
SmartPal
A friend for the family
SmartPal is an app to help parents foster meaningful communication with their children. Whether you want to share more time together or ensure your child is healthy, SmartPal can help you. Parents can input questions and interact with their child through an age-appropriate character in the app. Your child’s responses are recorded and securely delivered to the parent app for you to listen to.
Squeaky Clean
Keeping your teeth happy and squeaky clean!
Squeaky Clean is an app that makes brushing fun for kids by letting them earn rewards. Set up reminders and reward thresholds on your phone, and when your child wears the watch, they’ll be able to start a timer that teaches them good dental hygiene practices and feel good about brushing!
Noms 4 Two
Starting your child’s healthy diet from day one!
Pregnant mother are often concerned about what they eat, how much they should eat, and will those food affect their baby. Our mobile and watch applications aims to develop a healthy diet for pregnant mother (and their unborn children) by allowing them to see nutritional facts of the food before they eat. With a quick scan of bar code or search, the mother would be able to see whether it is good for them during a certain period of pregnancy, as well as track their calories among other nutrients they require to stay healthy. The application is also location aware, and it will notify the mother about food to avoid when they walk into a certain restaurant. They can also list ingredients that make them nauseous and those that are forbidden by their doctor or their allergies, and our app will alert them when they scan the item.
PeaceMeal
Safely choose your next meal
PeaceMeal targets users with dietary restrictions. One main concern for people with dietary restrictions is that they often have to play the guessing game when it comes to trying out new restaurants. It’s difficult to tell if a restaurant provides a wide variety of food that user can safely have. There is also this problem with having to constantly ask the waiter the ingredients of a meal that you find appealing. PeaceMeal offers an easier way for you to choose restaurants and meals so that you can fully enjoy good and trustworthy meals. PeaceMeal filters out meals that contain ingredients that you are trying to avoid and only show you the ones that you can safely have. Everyone deserves to enjoy their meal without having to worry about unwanted body reactions in the next few hours, and PeaceMeal lets you have worryless, safe meals easier than ever before.
Cocoon
Create a safe haven for your little caterpillar.
Your child’s hearing is important, especially in the Digital Age. How else will they properly enjoy their first episode of Pokemon? Their first read-along book? Perform their first piano recital at Carnegie Hall? Your child’s hearing is important. And so is the rest of them. Long before their first days, your fetus is constantly exposed to harmful environmental hazards. Noise is one such factor and can result in defects like inborn hearing loss. But Cocoon is here to help. With Cocoon you can: • Measure the ambient noise in your environment • Receive alerts when the level is high enough to cause your little treasure harm • Get data visualization that bundles up information on the noise levels you and your fetus have been exposed to • Get access to resources and tips to keep yourself informed about noise and other potentially harmful environmental factors. Keep your cocoon a sanctuary. Create a safe space for your little caterpillar.
Resonate
The app that listens for you.
Resonate is an app for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. It uses sound recognition to listen for alarms, alerts, and household sounds (alarm clock, oven, laundry timer) happening around the user. It sends vibrating notifications to the user on their phone and watch. Finally, Resonate allows users to create sound groupings with an associated location so that when a user walks into their house or goes to work, the app will only notify them of sounds they care about that are relevant to that location.
Subliminal
What's on your mind?
Subliminal is a mobile and watch app for Patients of mood-related disorders (particularly suspected or diagnosed patients of Bipolar Disorder) and their therapists. The app features a customizable mood tracking tool that records the patient's mood and location several times every day and displays this data in a visual representation. The data is available to both the patient and their therapist, and allows therapists to keep track of the well-being of all their patients. Additionally, the app also provides a notification feature where a therapist is immediately notified of concerning data (e.g. suicidal reports), and allows instant messaging between a therapist and their patients. Since every patient with a mental disorder is unique, the goal of the app is to provide a platform for patients and therapists alike to better understand the condition, and use data to aid in diagnosis and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment.
Umbrella
Location tracker for Alzheimer’s patients: ensure the safety of your loved ones.
Umbrella is a mobile and smartwatch app that is designed to make the lives of Alzheimer’s patients and their caretakers easier. Through location tracking, onetoone direct messaging and emergency correspondence, a caretaker and his or her patient can have meaningful input to achieve desired communication and safety.
Lucina
Allowing you and your little one to rest easy.
Lucina is a baby monitor app that utilizes the state-of-the-art sensors on smartwatch to free new parents from checking in with their baby 24/7. The watch with the app can be placed on the infant’s bed with a special enclosure to detect baby’s movements or crying sounds. The app features Crib Mode, in which parents receives notification where their baby is about to wake up and start moving, and Nursery Mode, when parents receive alerts when their baby starts crying and needs immediate attention. Parents can also see summaries of their baby’s sleeping data to better track the baby’s status over the long term. By making new parent feel reassured when they aren’t within earshot of their baby, we hope to assist new parents in what would otherwise be the overwhelming task of constant parenting.
Bubba: The Happy Buddy
He’s happy when you’re happy
Many teens today struggle with eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. This project provides a non-intrusive way of encouraging these teens to eat via positive reinforcement, while monitoring them without having to bring up the topic of food. When the user eats, he or she can feed their pet (Bubba), who will react cutely. Their pet will encourage healthy eating habits as well as track the user’s eating patterns (to ensure their safety) and feelings about eating (to track their progress and app usage).
CPR++
Apply the right amount of pressure. Save a life in seconds.
CPR++ helps untrained individuals learn CPR or review CPR for previously CPR-certified individuals so that they can be prepared for future time-sensitive emergencies that require CPR. Users can walk through a self-paced tutorial on their smartphones or use their smartwatches during a training simulation with a dummy to get a count and rhythm as well as receive real-time feedback on their technique.
SmartBrush
Brighten your routineTulyp
Helping you and your doctor understand your Parkinson’s betterM
Tulyp is an app that uses wearables to collect data points for Parkinson’s patients. Using Tulyp, patients can track the progression of their disease, and give access to doctors to view that data. Doctors will be able to code the data and graphs by the medication the patient is taking, which will allow them to compare how patients react to the various medications. This will allow them to create more personalized treatments, which is necessary since Parkinson’s is a disease that affects everyone in different ways.
Dear Jacky
Record, Reflect and Respond to your moods to make a happier you.
Dear Jacky is a mood tracking application where you can record your emotions and their causes. You have the ability to look at your previous entries on a daily and monthly scale, and reflect on how you have been feeling. Jacky will notice if you are feeling down, and will offer you suggestions to cheer yourself up that are customized specifically for your wants and needs.