An interactive cuddly toy to bring along to bed to help you sleep or soothes you in the night when you wake. Which kid would not like to have one? And in the care for the mentally disabled it could also help a lot of people.
Charged by Robots that Care and Sherpa, a care facility where Jeroen works part time, a group of young students has started to design a Sleeping Buddy. This is done at a Duthc Technasium, for the Research and Design lessons which are the core of that school.
A first impression of the Sleeping Buddy
The idea behind this cuddlebot is that it can measure sleep using various sensors, and that it can try to improve sleep, through display-options (lichts, music, etc.) and the interaction with the problematic sleeper (for example through joining and calming their heartbeat or breathing frequency).
A similar development is taking place at Somnox. Or, to be honest, they are a bit further 🙂
But with this initiative Sylvia Loos is involved, of Nyx Zorg voor Slaap and of Sherpa. She and Theo of Nyx have a very large experience with sleeping problems of people with mental disabilities and they are helping to achieve a good design.
