The Honeycomb
Modern lifestyles force many parents to spend considerable time away from one another and their children. In some cases, parents are separated by hundreds or thousands of miles due to their careers. This can place a strain on their relationship as husband and wife, and throw their roles as caregivers into disarray. The Honeycomb is a suite of devices that enable physically separated spouses to connect with one another by transmitting fragments of sensory experiences of prototypical parenting activities from various stages of babyhood.
The Honeycomb is comprised of three devices, one for each stage of babyhood:
Modern lifestyles force many parents to spend considerable time away from one another and their children. In some cases, parents are separated by hundreds or thousands of miles due to their careers. This can place a strain on their relationship as husband and wife, and throw their roles as caregivers into disarray. The Honeycomb is a suite of devices that enable physically separated spouses to connect with one another by transmitting fragments of sensory experiences of prototypical parenting activities from various stages of babyhood.
The Honeycomb is comprised of three devices, one for each stage of babyhood:
Prenatal: The Kickbee
The Kickbee, is a fetal activity monitor worn by a pregnant mother. When a baby kicks its mother, a text message is sent to the father, alerting him to the developing baby’s activity within the womb. The vibration of the cell phone becomes a physical response to fetal movement for the father.
During initial development, I considered creating separate devices for the mother and father to wear. The mother’s device would detect a kick, and the father’s device would receive that kick as a physical response. Several concepts were considered for the father’s device: Would it simulate a kick on his belly? Maybe a nudge by a servo somewhere else on his body? Perhaps a vibrating wristband? This exploration concluded in the realization that fathers usually have a (networked) vibrating device in their pockets all the time...their mobile phones. By taking advantage of the phone and its communications abilities, I was able to implement an analogue of a baby kick through the transmission of a simple SMS text message.
The Kickbee’s physical platform is a medical-grade spandex belt normally used for supplemental support of a woman’s pregnant belly. A series of vibration sensors are attached to the belt longitudinally so their sensing areas can register the vibrations within the torso generated by a third-trimester baby. A microcontroller receives these signals, performs software filtering and processing, and transmits validated “kick” signals wirelessly to a custom Java application running on a personal computer.
The Kickbee utilizes the popular microblogging service Twitter as a platform to record and distribute “kicks” to fathers as mobile phone text messages, thanks to its publicly available Application Programming Interface (API). The application logs into the Twitter messaging platform via its API and updates the Kickbee’s account with a new message, such as “I kicked Mommy at 5:17pm on Sunday, April 26, 2009!”
More on the Kickbee can be found here.
The Kickbee, is a fetal activity monitor worn by a pregnant mother. When a baby kicks its mother, a text message is sent to the father, alerting him to the developing baby’s activity within the womb. The vibration of the cell phone becomes a physical response to fetal movement for the father.
During initial development, I considered creating separate devices for the mother and father to wear. The mother’s device would detect a kick, and the father’s device would receive that kick as a physical response. Several concepts were considered for the father’s device: Would it simulate a kick on his belly? Maybe a nudge by a servo somewhere else on his body? Perhaps a vibrating wristband? This exploration concluded in the realization that fathers usually have a (networked) vibrating device in their pockets all the time...their mobile phones. By taking advantage of the phone and its communications abilities, I was able to implement an analogue of a baby kick through the transmission of a simple SMS text message.
The Kickbee’s physical platform is a medical-grade spandex belt normally used for supplemental support of a woman’s pregnant belly. A series of vibration sensors are attached to the belt longitudinally so their sensing areas can register the vibrations within the torso generated by a third-trimester baby. A microcontroller receives these signals, performs software filtering and processing, and transmits validated “kick” signals wirelessly to a custom Java application running on a personal computer.
The Kickbee utilizes the popular microblogging service Twitter as a platform to record and distribute “kicks” to fathers as mobile phone text messages, thanks to its publicly available Application Programming Interface (API). The application logs into the Twitter messaging platform via its API and updates the Kickbee’s account with a new message, such as “I kicked Mommy at 5:17pm on Sunday, April 26, 2009!”
More on the Kickbee can be found here.
Infant: The Burpbee
The Burpbee transmits the warmth of a baby’s body on one parent’s shoulder to the other over a distance. It consists of two objects: a “transmitter” in the form of a burp cloth, and a “receiver” in the form of a men’s button-down shirt.
Inside the transmitter, a padded soft switch is sewn under the area on which the baby rests. This part of the burp cloth hangs down over the chest of the parent. When the baby is resting on the parent’s shoulder, the switch is closed.
Inside the other half of the burp cloth, which hangs over the shoulder and down the back of the parent, is a small circuit board which contains a battery and wireless transceiver. When the soft switch is closed by the presence of a baby, the transceiver is powered and acts as a beacon. A Java application running on a personal computer is programmed to listen for this beacon, and consequently communicates over a TCP/IP network (such as the Internet) to a complementary Java application which manages the Burpbee receiver’s operation.
The Burpbee receiver is a button-down shirt that has a resistive heater, small circuit board, and a battery sewn to an inside chest pocket. As long as the transmitter beacon is broadcasting, the Burpbee receiver is instructed to turn on the resistive heater that covers the wearer’s left shoulder and chest. This heater warms slowly, and after 30 seconds has reached its peak temperature of about 110º fahrenheit. This heat is dissipated over the shoulder through copper foil, and with a couple of layers of fabric underneath effectively simulates the body heat of an infant. The current design uses a men’s shirt, but the modular electronics could easily be moved to a woman’s garment.
The Burpbee transmits the warmth of a baby’s body on one parent’s shoulder to the other over a distance. It consists of two objects: a “transmitter” in the form of a burp cloth, and a “receiver” in the form of a men’s button-down shirt.
Inside the transmitter, a padded soft switch is sewn under the area on which the baby rests. This part of the burp cloth hangs down over the chest of the parent. When the baby is resting on the parent’s shoulder, the switch is closed.
Inside the other half of the burp cloth, which hangs over the shoulder and down the back of the parent, is a small circuit board which contains a battery and wireless transceiver. When the soft switch is closed by the presence of a baby, the transceiver is powered and acts as a beacon. A Java application running on a personal computer is programmed to listen for this beacon, and consequently communicates over a TCP/IP network (such as the Internet) to a complementary Java application which manages the Burpbee receiver’s operation.
The Burpbee receiver is a button-down shirt that has a resistive heater, small circuit board, and a battery sewn to an inside chest pocket. As long as the transmitter beacon is broadcasting, the Burpbee receiver is instructed to turn on the resistive heater that covers the wearer’s left shoulder and chest. This heater warms slowly, and after 30 seconds has reached its peak temperature of about 110º fahrenheit. This heat is dissipated over the shoulder through copper foil, and with a couple of layers of fabric underneath effectively simulates the body heat of an infant. The current design uses a men’s shirt, but the modular electronics could easily be moved to a woman’s garment.
Toddler: The Bathbee
The Bathbee is an olfactory bathtime awareness device for a parent who is away from home. It consists of two objects: a “transmitter” in the form of a rubber ducky bath toy, and a “receiver” in the form of a rubber ducky-themed children’s lunchbox. When the bath toy is being actively played with in a bathtub, it transmits the smells of bathtime over a distance by filling the room with the scent of baby oil.
The bath toy transmitter contains an embedded power source, a small circuit board with a trigger/timer circuit, and a wireless transceiver. Water sensing probes are activated when the toy is placed in the bathtub, and the transceiver is powered. A Java application running on a personal computer is programmed to listen for this beacon, and consequently communicates over a TCP/IP network (such as the Internet) to a complementary Java application which manages the Bathbee receiver’s operation.
The receiver is a small children’s lunchbox. This lunchbox contains a battery, microcontroller, wireless transceiver, and a piezoelectric air freshener. This air freshener works by atomizing small particles of oil by pulsing the piezo element at 150mhz, which is initiated by the microcontroller.
As long as the transmitter beacon is broadcasting, the Bathbee receiver is instructed to repeatedly emit the fragrance attached to the air freshener. This custom fragrance is composed of baby oil and isopropyl alcohol. When atomized, the scent of baby oil is released into the room, filling it with the smell of baby’s bathtime.
The Bathbee is an olfactory bathtime awareness device for a parent who is away from home. It consists of two objects: a “transmitter” in the form of a rubber ducky bath toy, and a “receiver” in the form of a rubber ducky-themed children’s lunchbox. When the bath toy is being actively played with in a bathtub, it transmits the smells of bathtime over a distance by filling the room with the scent of baby oil.
The bath toy transmitter contains an embedded power source, a small circuit board with a trigger/timer circuit, and a wireless transceiver. Water sensing probes are activated when the toy is placed in the bathtub, and the transceiver is powered. A Java application running on a personal computer is programmed to listen for this beacon, and consequently communicates over a TCP/IP network (such as the Internet) to a complementary Java application which manages the Bathbee receiver’s operation.
The receiver is a small children’s lunchbox. This lunchbox contains a battery, microcontroller, wireless transceiver, and a piezoelectric air freshener. This air freshener works by atomizing small particles of oil by pulsing the piezo element at 150mhz, which is initiated by the microcontroller.
As long as the transmitter beacon is broadcasting, the Bathbee receiver is instructed to repeatedly emit the fragrance attached to the air freshener. This custom fragrance is composed of baby oil and isopropyl alcohol. When atomized, the scent of baby oil is released into the room, filling it with the smell of baby’s bathtime.
