This wearable technology project starts with some research into two existing projects referred to in the Microsoft Research report:

1. Ambient Wood, a project that combines a physical environment with augmented reality, for the purpose of creating a fun and interactive learning experience for children.

2. Whereabouts Clock which uses SMS messaging to alert a device when a family member moves location. The location is displayed on the clock device.

I begun by looking at different sorts of ‘wearables’ that technology could be integrated into. I used the A-Z method, to quickly come up with a range of different things and start thinking creatively.

The two groups of people I’m going to be looking at designing for specifically in this project are children and the elderly. The first thing I did was create a series of mind maps, focusing on the problems and desires of these particular groups.

From this, I decided to concentrate on the topic of children having trouble sleeping. The task that needs to take place is to adjust sleeping conditions to help the child back to sleep. I created a task analysis flow diagram to consider the actions needed for this.

Other functions that could be added include sensing if the child is wet, dehydrated or a sensor that sends information to a separate device to monitor the child’s sleeping pattern.