Isolation Control| The Isolation Solution
Awards & Nominations
Isolation Control has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
The Isolation Solution
PING, the robot
Summary
The challenge to come up with an innovative solution to social isolation made us think about people infected by COVID-19 and nenior people in nursing homes, who need to be in quarantine. They go through the peak of loneliness during treatment, so they cannot even have direct contact with doctors. It is in this sense that our robot will act, bringing the image of family members, demonstrating feelings, moving its body in order to offer affection and offering vibrational therapy. Therefore, in addition to being a companion to hospitalized and nursing homes, it is also an easy way for family members to know how their relatives are recovering.
How We Addressed This Challenge
Our project is a strong contender for the “best mission concept category”. Because the Ping project invests in combating the feeling of loneliness that COVID-19 hospitalized patients and seniors in nursing homes are suffering during this hard period. We realized that the best solution for this paradigm would be through technology, using a robot as an affective resource to help people who suffer from psychological disorders such as depression or anxiety. According to psychologist Leopoldo Barbosa, it is necessary to act with reason and to know how to manage the isolation process of adults, the elderly and children, because it is noticed that this period has a very strong emotional impact, such as stress, nervousness and boredom. So it is important to have tools, like our robot, to improve the mental health of affected individuals in our society.
How We Developed This Project
We have started the project by doing brainstorming. Many ideas came, some similar, others don’t, but, at the end, the decision was to develop (at least the idea) of a robot that helps the Covid-19 victims in the hospital, who can’t see them family by the quarantine, keeping in a well-being mind state. To confirm if this is a real problem, we searched NASA data and found a study about how the isolation affects the mind health of the astronauts, and the answers are not good, showing that our project will make the difference to these people.
To develop the idea of Ping (name of the robot), it was initially drawn on a sketch by hand, then passed to a 3D model on the software Onshape. While it, we discussed its features, choosing what would be interesting and, also, found a NASA study about vibrational therapy and its benefits, adding it to the little bot.
In a voice call with a mentor, we decide to apply Ping not only to the deceased ones but to the seniors people in nursing homes, they are affected by the quarantine too and can’t see their family, so we thought it would be nice to them.
After being certain of all this, a mock-up app was developed, it’s idea is only to demonstrate how it would work, it features. The design is very simplistic, having the essential stuff only.
To finish the process, we reached our goal, but the idea now is to keep developing the app, with everything it needs, and to produce the Ping with all its features, applying to a real situation and getting relevant results about it.
Project Demo
Youtube Pitch Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAyID24mP4Q
Data & Resources
Good Vibrations: Available in: <https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast02nov_1>. Accessed 05/31/2020.
Characterization of Psychological Risk, Overlap with Physical Health, and Associated Performance in Isolated, Confined, Extreme (ICE) Environments. Available in: <https://taskbook.nasaprs.com/tbp/index.cfm?action=public_query_taskbook_content&TASKID=12495>. Accessed 05/31/2020.
Available in: <https://sa-2019.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/Judging_Awards_Space_Apps_COVID-19.pdf>. Accessed 05/31/2020.
Available in: <https://www.onshape.com/>.Accessed 05/31/2020.
Available in: <https://www.invisionapp.com/>. Accessed 05/31/2020.
The Hippies Were Right: It's All about Vibrations, Man! Available in: <https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-hippies-were-right-its-all-about-vibrations-man/>. Accessed 05/31/2020.
Update on vibration therapy for bone health. Available in: <https://www.health.harvard.edu/womens-health/update-on-vibration-therapy-for-bone-healt>. Accessed 05/31/2020.