emBreath

Background

What's COPD：

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) refers to a collection of lung diseases that result in breathing difficulties.Because of the impairment of lungs, only part of air could be exchanged. It leads to shortness of breath and CO2 retention. — Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) refers to a collection of lung diseases that result in breathing difficulties.
Because of the impairment of lungs, only part of air could be exchanged. It leads to shortness of breath and CO2 retention.

Scale of the problem

It resulted in 3.2 million deaths in 2015 accounting for 6% of all deaths globally. The number of deaths is projected to increase further in coming decades.*data source from WHO — It resulted in **3.2 million** deaths in 2015 accounting for 6% of all deaths globally. The number of deaths is projected to increase further in coming decades.
*data source from WHO

Managing COPD

Research

For obtaining first-hand info on this project, I interviewed people related to this area. They are patients, therapists, physicians, research scientists and designers, have personal experiences on COPD, clinical medicine knowledge, and a holistic view on the industry.

THE PROBLEM WITH COPD MANAGEMENT

If people have been diagnosed with COPD, they will meet a problematic situation.Because of the pulmonary dysfunction, they lose ability to do daily activities, which leads to a vicious spiral of inactivity. It sped the deterioration of pulmonary fun… — If people have been diagnosed with COPD, they will meet a problematic situation.
Because of the pulmonary dysfunction, they lose ability to do daily activities, which leads to **a vicious spiral of inactivity**. It sped the deterioration of pulmonary function.
The active lifestyle could help them to maintain pulmonary function. But a little of over-exertion during activities might trigger **SOB** or even acute exacerbation of COPD.
Threshold Positive Expiratory Pressure (PEP), works as a device-added breathing technique, could help they calm down and quickly recover from SOB. **Regular training of PEP** can also help them strength respiratory muscles and maintain pulmonary functions.
Learning the correct way of breathing exercise, setting up a realistic target and training plan, and preventing over-exertion to trigger SOB are main challenges they met.

Shortness of breath (SOB) is a suffering experience and it sometimes lasts about 6-7 minutes. During SOB, COPD patients can inhale but barely exhale, which makes it feel just like drowning. The fear to SOB makes patients avoid to do any activities. — Shortness of breath (**SOB**) is a suffering experience and it sometimes lasts about **6-7 minutes**. During SOB, COPD patients can inhale but barely exhale, which makes it feel just like **drowning**. The fear to SOB makes patients avoid to do any activities.

Based on a certain amount of respiratory resistance and proper breathing rhythm, individuals can get enough exercises for breathing muscles to delay the weaken of lung function caused by COPD. Both inhalation and exhalation training are beneficial.

EXISTING PRODUCTS

These products are designed to provide an adjustable load to users' breathing. Many of these were developed at last century. The often reported problems about them are: bulky, noisy and clinical looking.

DESIGN OPPORTUNITY

Offering them an approach to intuitively learn, understand and master breathing techniques.

Providing a low threshold path to help them build the habit of taking breathing exercise regularly.

Integrating a vital signs monitoring system to keep the exercise safe and collect data for analysis and prognosis.

Concept development

RAPID PROTOTYPING

At the very early stage, I built a variety of structures and ideas by LEGO blocks and cardboard. It allowed me to simulate possible user scenarios.

Paper mockups

FORM LANGUAGE

I tried to communicate a positive emotion by following 3 key points: Harmonious, Comfortable and the Philips product language.

Form language inspiration

When it comes to the look and feel I was looking at
handhold products and products with soft shapes. I
Also followed the design language from existed Philips
healthcare products

INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPES

The main purpose of its interaction design was to create an easily understandable and motivational exercise program which encourage users to learn and practice. In this phase, I focused on the on-device guidance and the augmented feedback, which works as intuitive hints for users to use the device and adopt the individualized breathing rhythm.

Demo - tweaking notes

This one can play some diﬀerent short pieces of melody. The tone, length and volume of melodies could be altered by speed and volume of breath. If the ﬂow last longer, the end of the melody will be extended and followed with some new notes according to the ﬂow speed.

Demo - LED progress + Audio scoring

This prototype tried to provide users with clear and understandable feedback to their breath. After the user accomplish one breath, the number of lights shows how long the breath takes, and the speaker gives a sound to indicate if the goal has been achieved or not.

Demo - Haptic feedback

From the research, I found the reason of users feel boring and confusion is the lack of real-time feedback. So I tried to add some guidance of breathing pattern through haptic feedback.
These prototypes had 3 vibration motors along the direction of breathing. They vibrate in sequence according to the breathing ﬂ ow, to simulate an eﬀect of a 'virtual' ball been blown away to the far end in the tube.

Demo - Vital signs monitoring

The idea was that the user need to hold the device for 3 seconds. After the light or speaker gave feedback, the device start the breathing exercises program.
Two force-sensitive-resistor were used to simulate the electrodes and a pulse sensor was used to detect users' heart beat. When the user hold all of three sensors, the light on the LED ring will start to move, showing the progress of heart rate measuring. If the LED ring completed, the exercise program will boot up.
The sensors keep monitoring vital signs during the breathing exercise, and give the user notification if their body status isn't suit to continue.

Demo - Progress animation + Emoji

This prototype used a bi-color LED matrix to play a short animation. The wave animation represent their breathing ﬂow. When they stop the exhalation and start inhalation, the emoji tells if they achieved the preset goal or not.

TESTING

Tested these interactive prototypes and physical mock-ups, which helped to evaluate and improve design.

MOCK-UPS MAKING

During the process, I made a series of mock-ups by 3D printing. They were used for design evaluation, structure test and exhibition.

RESULT

175 million people suffering from COPD and its prime symptom - shortness of breath. emBreath is a portable healthcare device providing sufferers with a safe and motivational breathing exercise program, which could help them regain control and confidence to their breath.

CONCEPT VIDEO

KEY FEATURES

With multimodal interaction, users can learn and practice breathing exercises intuitively.

The device integrates visual, auditory and haptic feedback to help users understand their breathing rhythm and performance. With the visualized breathing ﬂow and the ‘metronome', users could perceive the rhythm. After each breath, the device will play a short phrase ending according to the breath and preset goal.

With lights and sounds, users could easily set up the pressure load.