Vibe's Purpose
Mainstreaming, a common term in the Autism field, refers to the practice of placing children diagnosed with ASD into “normal” or mainstream schools. Temple Grandin, a leader in the ASD community, credits much of her success to her time spent in mainstream schools, claiming that it allows children to train their communication abilities and learn to cope with their difficulties.
Although this may be a preferred path, it is sadly an unrealistic option for many children on the more severe side of the spectrum. Because of the communication issues and bouts of stimming behavior that many autistic children face, creating an environment which helps these children learn is often difficult and unattainable in mainstream schools today VIBe aims to solve this problem by developing an affordable wristband that will create a discrete channel for communication between the student and the teacher as well as comfort the user in the event of a bout of stimming behavior. Please watch the video above for a full description.
VIBe's Journey
IPAT, in September 2013, dreamed of overcoming the two major roadblocks, lack of clear communication and stimming behavior, that prevent many autistic children from succeeding in mainstream schools. VIBe was created to accomplish that. Our first prototype, designed, prototyped, and built it from scratch, was unveiled at the beginning of the 2014 Conrad Spirit of Innovation. We have developed full technical and business plans as well as conducted research to prove VIBe’s efficacy. Our device aims to act as a home healthcare device that helps smoothly integrate autistic children into mainstream schools and new environments. VIBe combines localized vibrations, communication, and our virtual guardian software into one compact product.
How Does VIBe Work?
Robust and Aesthetically Pleasing Design
VIBe is not only tough enough to take some abuse, it also comes in various colors that can be tailored to any child.
Virtual Guardian
For many autistic children,unannounced outbursts are a key issue affecting everyday life. Therefore, one of VIBe’s functions is to detect and limit these outbursts. This feature, Virtual Guardian, allows teachers to concentrate on the class as a whole rather than diverting extra attention to the child.
In VIBe’s current stage, only an accelerometer is used to measure the child’s level of activity, however, a heart rate monitor will be added in future designs. An algorithm detects changes in the patterns of movement to distinguish between different activities i.e. determining when the child is working on classwork and when the child is frustrated or anxious.
Click on the links below to navigate to our work with detecting outbursts
Vibrating Motor
Through the use of localized vibrations VIBe is able to mitigate the as well help the child cope with anxiety. IPAT has conducted research, the first of its kind, on localized vibrations and their effect on calming various populations.
Monitor
VIBe is constantly connected to an included monitor that displays which buttons the child presses, can initiate vibrations, adjust the strength of vibrations, and adjust the sensitivity of the Virtual Guardian.
Built in Communication
An autistic child’s social disability limits their ability to communicate. To solve this problem, VIBe aids autistic children in basic communication. The child effectively communicates his or her needs through four simple buttons on VIBe’s face. Through these buttons, the child will be able to easily notify the guardian or teacher of possible problems or needs, for example, “Help”, “Bathroom”, etc.
