Design of a Health Monitoring Toy for Children

Abstract

Especially for young children measuring their physiological parameters to assess their health can be stressful, even when conducted at home by their parents. Therefore we present a concept that can relieve some of the anxiety correlated with an examination and implemented it in a test setup we call "MediCubes" to investigate how this approach is received. In this system cube shaped tangible objects are fitted with noninvasive sensors measuring pulse, temperature, blood oxygen saturation and lung capacity while interacting with them. Incorporation in a storytelling game allows guiding a child through a series of unperceived physiological measurements as an enjoyable experience. The acquired data is stored on a smartphone and can be reviewed by parents or doctors. In this paper the design process and the developed hardand software are presented. Furthermore we report on a usability study with 8 children and 12 adults indicating high acceptance and enjoyment of the system. These results as well as our "lessons learned" could have implications on the future development of home health monitoring toys.