Connect.me - Space Apps Challenge

Connect.me | The Isolation Solution

The Isolation Solution

Social distancing policies enacted the world over during the COVID-19 pandemic have left many people socially isolated. Your challenge is to develop innovative solutions to combat social isolation.

Conect-me

Summary

Aiming to minimize the emotional impacts of social isolation, both of an astronaut in space, as well as of a family isolated, we imagined a virtual reality software where the participants will have their faces scanned in 3D and from an initial training phase based on artificial intelligence will be created an Avatar with the real appearance of the participants. This software will allow the creation of tasks between participants in which events will take place in immersive virtual scenarios.

How We Addressed This Challenge

The sudden and obligatory change in the behavior and routine of the humanity due to a pandemic of the Corona Virus is affecting the emotional in the majority of the population. Feeling this change and perceiving the instability of mood in the people around us, and in ourselves, affected by social distance, we embraced this challenge in order to resolve the negative psychological effects this distance causes and bring an amazing and en masse experience, that is, it will be used by a large part of the population, by astronauts on short and long-term space flights, and by people who are far away. In order to meet this need, we have developed a system based on virtual reality, presented through glasses that will allow a person have the following experience: the camera will scan the environment which the person is in 360°, make the projection of a virtual 3D environment for herself and for the person or people she would like to meet in that space, this in conjunction with technology that will create an avatar with a real appearance of the participants. Establishing an innovative communication, in real time or being able to bring the avatar of someone you know to create a game as if that person were living with you at that moment and send this animation so the person feels present and included when using the application. We from connect.me use psychological foundation based on articles made available by NASA and published books to analyze and compare reports of behavioral changes and psychological difficulties that astronauts and people in isolation are experiencing.

One of the most relevant and which supported the notion of solution is this: “Given the long duration of future missions and the isolated, confined and extreme environments, there is a possibility of (a) adverse cognitive or behavioral conditions may occur, affecting health and crew performance; and (b) mental disorders can develop if adverse behavioral conditions are not detected and not mitigated ”. - Thomas Williams, human factors and behavioral performance (HFBP)

Our proposal is to promote a connection beyond physical barriers and to transcend in an emotional and extraordinary environment meeting emotional needs to minimize changes in physical and mental health due to lack of social coexistence during periods of isolation or distancing from the people we love

How We Developed This Project

Realizing within our homes the dissatisfaction of isolation and the lack of social interaction, linked to the use of existing technologies that could solve this problem, generating well-being and satisfaction for all, we decided to choose this challenge to make this solution real. In deciding which solution to choose we realized we agree with the concept that "innovation isn't just inventing something new, but transforming, giving a new concept to something existing to provide the solution to humanity's problems". So we started by discussing problems and making assumptions about what society could be going through at the moment. We conducted this research with 288 people from Brazil, from literate to elderly, and we engaged in seeking a solution to the problem that they claim to be what bothers them the most at the moment, which is the emotional instability that this social isolation is generating in them. After that, we went after reports of astronauts and people who, through their work, spend periods of their lives in isolation, looking for these reports in books and NASA materials, and we noticed the similarity of behaviors and feelings, as the following report: “ losing the earth of view may generate a mix of boredom and depression, cutting off the crew ties with the mother planet can lead the astronauts to act strangely ”, puts the psychologist dietrich manzey.

Another material we found told us about DSM definitions: “Just as acute or chronic conditions during space flight can lead to the development of a psychiatric disorder. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) defines a mental disorder as: "A syndrome characterized by a clinically significant disturbance in cognition, emotional regulation or behavior in an individual that reflects a dysfunction in the underlying psychological, biological or developmental functioning processes mental ". The HFBP research addresses the risk of developing adverse behavioral conditions and psychiatric disorders during or after a long-term mission: “Evidence indicates that many space flight stressors, including altered severity, sleep loss, radiation exposure, isolation, and confinement, can lead to deregulation of the brain's structure and microenvironment, leading to the imbalanced function of neuronal and glial networks and the neurovascular unit ”(Cassady et al. al., 2016; Van Ombergen et al., 2017). Another report found in this regard that we find very relevant was: "Social interactions are also a significant factor in team cohesion and performance." - Johnson Space Center. In addition to the information above, we use many studies and reports to compare and verify that what we want to bring is something meaningful and innovative for people's daily lives, and that will make them have a better mental and psychic quality of life.

The specifications required for our project are: Project and Planning: Trello Design and Prototype: Figma Documents and Presentations: Google Drive Video: Loom 3D modeling: Blender Game and Animation: Unity3D Programing C#: Visual Studio Code Hardware: Android Mobiles

According to what we observed in the research data, we were able to relate the psychological problems of people in isolation on earth, with the astronauts. Based on the available data, we can see that the lack of contact with family members and loved ones promotes psychological problems, as well as depression, anxiety, and physical problems. In this way, we, as a group, in contact with the data made available by NASA, increase our love for science and technology, since, by analyzing empirically the change in the whole status quo and a world driven by space exploration, we are delighted with the whole process to be able to collaborate, with our minds and lives. However, with the advent of the digitalization of the Nasa space App event, we faced numerous problems that made us stronger as a team sense: a process of social distancing in the elaboration of ideas, failures in communication in the internet access and limitation of the temporary load in the execution of the project. Regardless, we are convinced that the greatest difficulty throughout the process was the infeasibility of access to Hardware structures in periods of pandemic and social distance.