Architec Tradure

Category: body

  • 01DecEffects of a Snoezelen on self-injury and aggression

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    Attribution: Photo of a snoezelroom at Het Balanske, Halensebaan 2, 3390 Tielt-Winge, Belgium by Michaël RY Laurent, Belgium.

    Snoezelen or controlled multisensory stimulation is used for people with (severe) mental disabilities, and involves exposing them to a soothing and stimulating environment, the “snoezelen room”. These rooms are specially designed to deliver stimuli to various senses, using lighting effects, color, sounds, music, scents, etc. The combination of different materials on a wall may be explored using tactile senses, and the floor may be adjusted to stimulate the sense of balance.

    Originally developed in the Netherlands in the 1970s, snoezelen rooms have been established in institutions all over the world (like in Germany, where more than 1200 exist).

    Snoezelen might be beneficial to people with autism and other developmental disabilities, dementia, and brain injury. However, research on these matters is scarce, with variable study designs.[1] [2]

    References

    [1]Chung JCC, Lai CKY. Snoezelen for dementia. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2002, Issue 4. Art.

    [2]Lancioni GE, Cuvo AJ, O’Reilly MF. Snoezelen: an overview of research with people with developmental disabilities and dementia. Disabil Rehabil. 2002; 24: 175-84.

    by Wikipedia

    Effects of Snoezelen room, Activities of Daily Living skills training, and Vocational skills training on aggression and self-injury by adults with mental retardation and mental illness. Res Dev Disabil. 2004 May-Jun;25(3):285-93. By Singh NN,

    Lancioni GE, Winton AS, Molina EJ, Sage M, Brown S, Groeneweg J.

    Abstract Multi-sensory stimulation provided in a Snoezelen room is being used increasingly for individuals with mental retardation and mental illness to facilitate relaxation, provide enjoyment, and inhibit behavioral challenges. We observed aggressive and self-injurious behavior in three groups of 15 individuals with severe or profound mental retardation and mental illness before, during, and after being in a Snoezelen room. All participants were receiving psychotropic medication for their mental illness and function-derived behavioral interventions for aggression, self-injury, or both. Using a repeated measures counterbalanced design, each group of participants was rotated through three experimental conditions: Activities of Daily Living (ADL) skills training, Snoezelen, and Vocational skills training. All other treatment and training activities specified in each individual’s person-centered plan were continued during the 10-week observational period. Both aggression and self-injury were lowest when the individuals were in a Snoezelen room, followed by Vocational skills training and ADL skills training. The levels in the Snoezelen room were significantly lower than in both the other conditions for aggression but only in ADL skills training for self-injury. The difference in levels before and after Snoezelen were statistically significant with self-injury but not with aggression. The order of conditions showed no significant effect on either behavior. Snoezelen may provide an effective context for reducing the occurrence of self-injury and aggression.

    PMID: 15134793 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]


  • 28MaySuper Hero and the Wii

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    Now, one can almost fully be a Super Hero Marvel with the Wii. Thank you Olivier! More pictures.


  • 28MaySuper Hero and the Wii

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    Now, one can almost fully be a Super Hero Marvel with the Wii. Thank you Olivier! More pictures.


  • 10MayInspiring book : the Prosthetic Impulse

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    The Prosthetic Impulse: From a Posthuman Present to a Biocultural Future, by Marquard Smith and Joanne Morra, eds. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2006.

    The prosthesis is not a mere extension of the human body; it is the constitution of this body qua “human.”
    —Bernard Steigler,Technics and Time

    With every tool man is perfecting his own organs, whether motor or sensory, or is removing the limits to their functioning. . . . Man has, as it were, become a kind of prosthetic God.When he puts on all his auxiliary organs, he is truly magnificent; but these organs have not grown on to him, and they still give him trouble at times. . . . Future ages will bring with them new and probably unimaginable great advances in this field of civilization and will increase man’s likeness to God still more. But in the interests of our investigations, we will not forget that present-day man does not feel happy in his Godlike character.
    —Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents

    The first chapter can be downloaded here

  • 09MayWearable robotic

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    Today at the h2.0 event -new minds, new bodies, new identities- Hugh Herr, director of the bio mechatronics group, presented his latest research. I am impressed by his work and fascinated by his own prostheses. He presented the number of persons who could benefit from wearable robotic and wearable attached to the body. From veterans who have parts of their body amputated, to anyone who could be robotically augmented. For instance, with wearable robotic, anyone could wear 100kg in a bag pack and not feel the load because it would be transmitted to the robot.

    In Hugh Herr’s research, living muscle tissues are stimulated electrically to get the desired motion response. He presented the motion by mechanics in prostheses developed by the mechatronics group at the MIT media laboratory. The Rheo knee prosthesis allows to reduce the energy consumed in walking, allows to walk downstairs, upstairs, faster and slower. The person who wears the prostheses is controlling the lift. This research is based on nature, on how nature functions and steals from nature for its design.

    Hugh Herr’s goal for the next years is to build the first hybrid body or limb by attaching robotic limb to the skeleton, load being transferred to the tissue. One of the main challenges is for the body to create its own seal. The group will develop the next generation of legs, and neurocontrol strategies for a direct control on these prostheses. Hugh Herr mentioned that his group developed the most powerful ankle in the world.

    For the Human 2.0 event, John Maeda composed of 24 scribbled personas. I still have not chosen the one I am …


  • 09MayA living sculpture

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    Aimée Mullins

    Today at the fantastic H2.0 event hosted by John Hockenberry and organized by the MIT Media Laboratory, key speakers presented new research initiatives for augmenting mental and physical capability and this to vastly improve the quality of human life.


    Pictures from Aimee Mullins’s talk

    I discovered the inspiring work of Aimée Mullins, that not only is functional but also beautiful. She raises questions on identity and the body, on what it means to loose her lower self. She worked with various artists, designers and modeled for Alexander Mc Queen.


    Aimée Mullins, Dazed & Confused, September 1998 by photographer Nick Knight

    In Cremaster 3, actress Aimée Mullins wears blades on the soles of her shoes or a white dress and transparent crystal legs.


    Cremaster 3

    At the end of the H2.0 event Aimée Mullins declared: “people say i have no legs, but I have ten pairs of them and my interaction with them allow me to be a living sculpture”


    Aimée’ Sculptural legs, photographer: Webb Chappell


    Model: Aimée Mullins, photographer: Chris Winget

    video

  • 04MayTouch Sensitive Apparel at Chi 2007

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    Poster presented at Chi 2007

    Our Touch Sensitive apparel is inspired by the vision to leverage stress, comfort, and massage people while they are on the move. When always on the move, as an interview based study has shown, people use technological devices to “tune-out” or express their fear of technology by finding “a place where [their] soul is” . What if objects that people carry with them and even carry on them could offer this sensory comfort that they seem to seek?

    More on our Touch Sensitive Apparel.

    Inspiration In hypermobile societies, people carry objects, information and goods. They develop habits. The notion of habitus coined by Bourdieu relates to everything that someone does, and in fact defines the individual. The search for comfort, to feel at home (to inhabit space through hab-its, habitus) when on the move defines the populations of our hyper-societies.

    Design

    Touch·Sensitive is a work-in-progress to develop a series of haptic modules that allow computational massage therapy to be diffused, customized and controlled by people on the move. It provides individuals with a sensory cocoon. Our current prototypes succeeded in defining a flexible structure, a mechanism of diffusion, and a feedback system for alerting and comforting the user through haptic means.

    In addition, we propose to integrate machine-learning algorithms to understand the massage needs of the users through the analysis over time of the correlation between the motions of the user, the location of the pressure points, the intensity and qualities of the stimulus. We plan to develop these next steps along with specialists in massage therapy.

    Download Chi 2007 WIP paper

    Touch Sensitive Apparel was presented at Chi 2007. Enthusiasm, advices, references, and new ideas inspired by the visitors will lead to a new prototype this summer.


  • 04MayTouch Sensitive Apparel at Chi 2007

    If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to receive the latest Architectradure’s articles in your reader or via email. Thanks for visiting!


    Poster presented at Chi 2007

    Our Touch Sensitive apparel is inspired by the vision to leverage stress, comfort, and massage people while they are on the move. When always on the move, as an interview based study has shown, people use technological devices to “tune-out” or express their fear of technology by finding “a place where [their] soul is” . What if objects that people carry with them and even carry on them could offer this sensory comfort that they seem to seek?

    More on our Touch Sensitive Apparel.

    Inspiration In hypermobile societies, people carry objects, information and goods. They develop habits. The notion of habitus coined by Bourdieu relates to everything that someone does, and in fact defines the individual. The search for comfort, to feel at home (to inhabit space through hab-its, habitus) when on the move defines the populations of our hyper-societies.

    Design
    Touch·Sensitive is a work-in-progress to develop a series of haptic modules that allow computational massage therapy to be diffused, customized and controlled by people on the move. It provides individuals with a sensory cocoon. Our current prototypes succeeded in defining a flexible structure, a mechanism of diffusion, and a feedback system for alerting and comforting the user through haptic means.
    In addition, we propose to integrate machine-learning algorithms to understand the massage needs of the users through the analysis over time of the correlation between the motions of the user, the location of the pressure points, the intensity and qualities of the stimulus. We plan to develop these next steps along with specialists in massage therapy.

    Download Chi 2007 WIP paper

    Touch Sensitive Apparel was presented at Chi 2007. Enthusiasm, advices, references, and new ideas inspired by the visitors will lead to a new prototype this summer.

  • 17JanTouch · Sensitive Apparel

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    What if objects that people carry with them and even carry on them could offer this sensory comfort that they seem to seek?

    Together with Yas I have codevelopped a touch-sensitive apparel for massage and sensory therapy. The research focuses on the material – how the structure and the embedded components of the garment participate in pushing its function to become an envelope or cocoon for one’s well-being.

    Touch·Sensitive is a haptic apparel that allows massage therapy to be diffused, customized and controlled by people while on the move. Made of modular garments, it applies personalized stimuli. Touch·Sensitive aims to provide individuals with a sensory cocoon, a comforting and alerting apparel with a feedback system. Our design for the Touch·Sensitive apparel comes from the observation that people need to sooth their body to protect themselves from everyday aggressions. Touch·Sensitive is a matrix made of clothing elements that allows diffusion of tactile information through heat sensors, mechanically-driven textural sensation and liquid diffusion.

    The following is a series of our Low-Fidelity prototypes.

    LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE #1



    This wired apparel alerts the user by mechanically shrinking the fabric onto specific points of tensions on the body.

    LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE #2



    The second low-fidelity prototype of Touch·Sensitive is made of buttons with silicone.

    LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE #3



    Manually inflatable vinyl pockets can be used to receive a comforting pressure

    LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE #4



    Structure flex

    Touch·Sensitive allows the diffusion of tactile information through computational and mechanical technologies. It is a computerized touch therapy apparel whose modular pieces can be integrated within the clothing. We have taken advantage of the growing miniaturization of computational components to integrate them seamlessly within the fabric.

    Keep tuned!

    ——————————————————-

    Touch · Sensitive Apparel work-in-progress 6 pages paper has been accepted to CHI 2007. Come see Yas and I in Saint Jose from April 28-May 3 2007!

    Abstract

    Touch·Sensitive is a haptic apparel that allows massage therapy to be diffused, customized and controlled by people while on the move. It provides individuals with a sensory cocoon. Made of modular garments, Touch·Sensitive applies personalized stimuli. We present the design process and a series of low fidelity prototypes that lead us to the Touch·Sensitive Apparel.

    Download pdf of the paper


  • 12JanRemembrance of an absence

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    In my sculpture work, I combine the material representation of a souvenir and its effect over time. I print on plaster molds a series of clothing on life-sized frames. The pieces of clothing carved in the plaster come from people I care for. Their prints represent their passage in my life at a point, and the mold essentially keeps the shape and the textural significance of the clothing.



    final installation (2007)

    More pictures.

    My paper on a selection of sculptures for Helen Mirra, VES, Harvard University, (Cambridge, MA, USA. December, 2006). Remembrance of an absence