Pediatric consultations: a multi-sensory monitor for optimal engagement and diagnosis

There is an increasing recognition that children, especially those on the autism spectrum, experience challenges in emergency rooms and outpatient clinics due to sensory overload: these environments are often brightly lit, loud, and filled with unfamiliar people and equipment. This study aims to design a child-friendly device that will resolve these challenges. Teddy-Beat is a teddy-bear, housing a pulse monitoring sensor coupled with visual, tactile, and auditory actuators to display the sensor results in various artistic ways. The device was tested on five volunteers. The actuators responded in sync with every pulse output from the sensor, allowing users to see, feel, and hear their heartbeat in real-time. The pulse rate from the device is synchronized with recordings from a BPM monitor. The only child tested, showed positive emotions and relaxation.