The Suitable Machine: Exploring style through storytelling to inform design

<p>The Suitable machine demonstrates how aesthetic change can be made to a Continuous Positive Air Pressure (CPAP) device, allowing it to suit the visual style of a specified bedroom environment that has been described. Digital data (3D scans) of the CPAP device provided specific measurements allowing a wide variety of aesthetically styled outputs that were tailored to fit. Each suitable to the people, home and machine they are designed for. CPAP devices that are used to treat patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) are considered strongly driven by a medical aesthetic. The Suitable Machine explores how CPAP devices, hoses and masks can be housed within these bedroom settings, producing designs to personalise the domestic environment and reduce stigma through the improvement of aesthetic qualities. The research uses Research Through Design (RtD) as a methodology. Background Research, Design Audits and Narratives are used to define the scope and criteria, providing parameters for the research and design outputs. Background research shows both knowledge gaps and bias to a growing dilemma; suitability. Development of the designed outputs makes use of Sketching, 3D Scanning, CAD Modelling, digital Rendering and 3D Printing as methods; producing an experimental indication of what could be possible for the personalisation of medical devices through aesthetic change in domestic environments.</p>

The Suitable Machine: Exploring style through storytelling to inform design

<p>The Suitable machine demonstrates how aesthetic change can be made to a Continuous Positive Air Pressure (CPAP) device, allowing it to suit the visual style of a specified bedroom environment that has been described. Digital data (3D scans) of the CPAP device provided specific measurements allowing a wide variety of aesthetically styled outputs that were tailored to fit. Each suitable to the people, home and machine they are designed for. CPAP devices that are used to treat patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) are considered strongly driven by a medical aesthetic. The Suitable Machine explores how CPAP devices, hoses and masks can be housed within these bedroom settings, producing designs to personalise the domestic environment and reduce stigma through the improvement of aesthetic qualities. The research uses Research Through Design (RtD) as a methodology. Background Research, Design Audits and Narratives are used to define the scope and criteria, providing parameters for the research and design outputs. Background research shows both knowledge gaps and bias to a growing dilemma; suitability. Development of the designed outputs makes use of Sketching, 3D Scanning, CAD Modelling, digital Rendering and 3D Printing as methods; producing an experimental indication of what could be possible for the personalisation of medical devices through aesthetic change in domestic environments.</p>

High-Efficiency Multi-Sensor System for Chair Usage Detection

Recognizing Activities of Daily Living (ADL) or detecting falls in domestic environments require monitoring the movements and positions of a person. Several approaches use wearable devices or cameras, especially for fall detection, but they are considered intrusive by many users. To support such activities in an unobtrusive way, ambient-based solutions are available (e.g., based on PIRs, contact sensors, etc.). In this paper, we focus on the problem of sitting detection exploiting only unobtrusive sensors. In fact, sitting detection can be useful to understand the position of the user in many activities of the daily routines. While identifying sitting/lying on a sofa or bed is reasonably simple with pressure sensors, detecting whether a person is sitting on a chair is an open problem due to the natural chair position volatility. This paper proposes a reliable, not invasive and energetically sustainable system that can be used on chairs already present in the home. In particular, the proposed solution fuses the data of an accelerometer and a capacitive coupling sensor to understand if a person is sitting or not, discriminating the case of objects left on the chair. The results obtained in a real environment setting show an accuracy of 98.6% and a precision of 95%.

Equine Activity Time Budgets: The Effect of Housing and Management Conditions on Geriatric Horses and Horses with Chronic Orthopaedic Disease

Housing and management conditions strongly influence the health, welfare and behaviour of horses. Consequently, objective and quantifiable comparisons between domestic environments and their influence on different equine demographics are needed to establish evidence-based criteria to assess and optimize horse welfare. Therefore, the present study aimed to measure and compare the time budgets (=percentage of time spent on specific activities) of horses with chronic orthopaedic disease and geriatric (≥20 years) horses living in different husbandry systems using an automated tracking device. Horses spent 42% (range 38.3–44.8%) of their day eating, 39% (range 36.87–44.9%) resting, and 19% (range 17–20.4%) in movement, demonstrating that geriatric horses and horses suffering from chronic orthopaedic disease can exhibit behaviour time budgets equivalent to healthy controls. Time budget analysis revealed significant differences between farms, turn-out conditions and time of day, and could identify potential areas for improvement. Horses living in open-air group housing on a paddock had a more uniform temporal distribution of feeding and movement activities with less pronounced peaks compared to horses living in more restricted husbandry systems.

Domestic Environmental Experience Design

The term ‘domestic environmental experience’ was defined as users’ experiences of cognitive perceptions and physical responses to their domestic built environments. Domestic environments can be enriched through the implementation of environmental experience design (EXD) by combining users’ environmental, spatial and contextual factors that may accommodate occupants’ needs and demands as well as their health and wellbeing. Here, an EXD theoretical concept has been developed based on the ‘User-Centred Design’ thematical framework.

Are multi-cat homes more stressful? A critical review of the evidence associated with cat group size and wellbeing

Objectives The primary objective of this review was to conduct a systematic critical appraisal of published literature, in order to assess the evidence regarding the impact of cat group size on cat wellbeing in the domestic home. The secondary objectives were to: (i) identify additional social and environmental mediators of cat wellbeing in these contexts; and (ii) identify general limitations within the current evidence and provide recommendations for future studies. Methods A systematic search of electronic databases (Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar) was conducted using targeted Boolean phrasing. Papers were retained for appraisal of full text where they included a comparison of both single (n = 1) and multi-cat (n ⩾2) domestic housing conditions and/or comparison of different multi-cat group sizes, within a single study; or where they compared outcome measures that were either behavioural and/or physiological and deemed as relevant indicators of cat wellbeing. Results A total of 1334 unique papers were returned, 15 of which were retained. Of these papers, only four stated their primary aim to be an investigation of links between cat group size and cat wellbeing. Overall, the reviewed papers did not indicate consistent directions of effects regarding cat group size and outcome measures relevant to wellbeing. This was similar for the other social and environmental mediators identified. Conclusions and relevance Inconsistency in results is likely due to the substantial methodological variation, limitations in measures used as indicators of wellbeing and limitations in general study designs and reporting. Results also highlight the complex, multifactorial relationships between cat wellbeing and various social and environmental factors. These may be as, if not more, important than absolute numbers of cats residing within a household. Due to the various limitations and general paucity of research, further studies are recommended to provide a suitable evidence base regarding impacts of multi-cat living on cat wellbeing in domestic environments.

Smokers “Context Reactivity” in Virtual Domestic Environments

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Although the effects of proximal smoking cues have been widely studied in smokers, little is known on the features associated with background spatial context effect, that is, “context reactivity.” The aim of this study was to investigate context reactivity exhibited by smokers in virtual cue-free domestic scenarios. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Sixty-nine participants divided in 2 cohorts (33 smokers and 36 non-smokers) were exposed to a virtual reality session with 4 domestic room scenarios presented in a balanced order: bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living room. <b><i>Results:</i></b> We showed that (i) it is possible to elicit smoking craving in smokers in virtual reality, and (ii) these effects are room dependent and (iii) associated with a lower sense of presence; furthermore, (iv) smokers reported higher craving scores for alcohol and food in a room-dependent fashion compared to non-smokers. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Our study provides an experimental paradigm for assessing context reactivity in smokers and suggests a potential use for the identification of non-pharmacological interventions as a co-adjuvant of smoking cessation treatment.