Hasta La Ideas

Graduate designer Alexia Audrain has developed a chair with cocooning, inflatable walls that helps people with autism self-soothe when they are experiencing sensory overload.

Designed to emulate the feeling of being embraced, the Oto chair and its accompanying footrest squeeze the chest and legs via blow-up modules similar to those of a blood pressure monitor.

This kind of deep pressure therapy has proven beneficial for people with autism, who can struggle with processing sensory information such as noise, light or physical contact, by helping them focus on the limits of their own body.

Normally, this requires help from another person by being tightly held, hugged or pinned to the ground. But with the Oto chair, Audrain hopes to introduce a sense of agency and dignity into the process.

“The aim of the chair is to allow as many people as possible to use it autonomously, in order to meet their own sensory needs,” she told Dezeen.

“The hug should not be applied as in a restraint device or in psychiatric shock treatment. The user is in a seated position to remain in control of their body and open to the environment so that the hug is a choice.”

The blow-up modules at the heart of the hugging mechanism can be inflated and deflated via remote control or tablet, which allows users to fine-tune the pressure level.

Unlike the weighted blankets or vests that are sometimes used to administer deep pressure therapy, this system applies active rather than passive compression and thus provides more effective relief, Audrain said.

Housed within a beech wood shell, the chair’s plush interior is padded out with sound-absorbing upholstery foam and fabric, while distracting details such as zippers are hidden away, turning the design into a makeshift sensory deprivation chamber.

“The cocoon shape and the upholstery provide muffled acoustics that help users to concentrate on their senses and on their body while keeping them isolated from other stimuli,” said Audrain.

“In the first version, there was also a zipper on the cushion. But for some autistic people, it was really too tempting to touch it and play with it, which would have disturbed the feeling of pressure on their body.”

Audrain created the prototype chair during her degree at L’École de design Nantes Atlantique based on user feedback from people with autism and psychometricians studying sensory processing disorders.

Based on this input and her training in carpentry, Audrain envisioned the chair to look more like a piece of design than traditional “hug machines”, deep-pressure devices and other medical aids.

“Users, families and the medical teams confirm that it is important to have access to beautiful and non-stigmatising therapeutic furniture to contribute to the soothing effect that it provides,” the designer explained.

“I have used beech as it is a type of wood common in French forests unlike much medical furniture, which is made from plastic,” she continued.

“Moving away from the aesthetics of medical furniture is important because it could facilitate the inclusion of autistic people in different public and private environments.”

The Oto chair, which has been named a national winner at this year’s James Dyson Awards, has already been tested in the child psychiatry centre of the University Hospital of Tours.

And starting in October, Audrain hopes to trial five of the chairs in different settings while working to make the manufacturing process more affordable, with the aim of commercialising the design within the next year.

Other national winners, which will now enter the running to win the international James Dyson Award, include a device to reduce blood loss from knife wounds and a male contraceptive powered by ultrasound.

Photography is by Coralie Monnet.

The post Alexia Audrain designs hugging chair to comfort people with autism appeared first on Dezeen.

An ultra-compact oxygen concentrator machine tailored for places like high mountains where the oxygen levels drop with every step. The best thing, it doesn’t add to the carrying load of the wearer. which is a big advantage!

Climbing high peaks brings with it a set of unique challenges – low oxygen levels being the major one. This can cause breathing difficulties and in extreme cases fatalities in people with underlying medical conditions. That’s how important carrying oxygen reserves to high-altitude places actually is. This is turn gives rise to a new set of challenges – carrying bulky oxygen cylinders which can be laborious and take up a lot of useful space that could otherwise be used to store important supplies. Even using portable oxygen cylinders doesn’t have much merit.

I always imagined an oxygen concentrator machine that would be able to provide the necessary assistance while not being bulky or even look like a medical device, to be frank. This ultra-portable oxygen machine conceptualizes the dire need for a medical device capable of assisting climbers and trekkers in a form factor no bigger than your portable HHD. The compact outdoor equipment reduces all the extra bulk in a slim design that can be hooked right onto the backpack’s shoulder strap or your waist. It is so lightweight and small, you won’t even notice it is even there.

Dubbed OXYGIO, the portable oxygen concentrator designed by Yifeeling Design extracts the oxygen molecules from the air, filters, and compresses them to channel pure oxygen via the nasal cannula to the wearer. The medical equipment looks more like a modern gadget which is another advantage for people who like their things to be aesthetically pleasing. The digital display on the front shows the SPO2 levels and the remaining battery percentage.

While the designers don’t detail the operational time of the medical gadget, I presume it should be good for 3-4 hours. Also, the logical assumption is, it could be plugged into a battery bank to charge in around an hour or so . I seriously believe this should be the way to go for portable oxygen concentrator manufacturers who’ve stuck to the boring design for the most part. It would be the ideal situation if they can achieve the slim and ultra-compact form factor of the OXYGIO .

Designer: Yifeeling Design

H5 is a multifunctional vacuum cleaner designed for small spaces that can break down into four parts that fit into a compact charging bin for easy storage.

While living tiny is all the rage nowadays, it takes some skill to keep small city spaces clean. Especially when you live in an old apartment building or with pets, vacuuming becomes a daily chore. While vacuuming small spaces goes by quickly, storing a bulky vacuum cleaner becomes a nuisance just as quickly. To keep small spaces clean without the pain of storing big cleaning appliances, industrial designer Yipeng Zhu ideated a space-saving multifunctional vacuum cleaner called H5 that shrinks down to almost a ⅓ of its height.

H5 keeps an overall slim build when assembled and when disassembled so it doesn’t take up too much space in storage. When disassembled, H5 breaks down into four parts and fits into one charging case that can easily slip away behind any table or into the closet to free up floor space.

When users would like to use the vacuum, putting H5 together comes just as easily as putting together any other vacuum. The main pipe connects via telescopic tubing where the vacuum head also easily attaches.  Equipped with modular parts, H5 comes with three different vacuum heads that can be switched out for various cleaning needs.

A cylindrical brush is ideal for cleaning up dustballs and stubborn carpet stains. While the other two rectangular heads come in two different sizes to fit into tight corners and behind doors. Even the hose and pipe of H5 take on a narrow, cylindrical build to ensure it can fit underneath the bed and even under the refrigerator to pick up the dust that’s harder to reach with traditional, bulky vacuums.

A solid collection of electrical cleaning appliances is essential for tiny living spaces–especially when you reside in a big city. However, the majority of most electrical appliances are designed for large homes, prioritizing the small technical details over versatility and portability.

H5 is a vacuum cleaner that can tuck away into the smallest of crawlspaces (or literally wherever there’s room) when not in use and whose small assembled size allows it to get to the hardest-to-reach corners of your apartment when cleaning.

Designer: Yipeng Zhu

Intuitive controls and signals outfit H5’s entire build. 

H5 comes with three different brush heads to ensure the ideal tool for each cleaning job. 

The compact charging case is small enough to tuck away into any corner or closet. 

Shrinking down to what seems like a 1/3 of H5’s assembled height, the charging case is an ultimate space-saver. 

Each human is different. We see things differently, think differently, dress differently, have different tastes in food, movies, music. Some people actually like listening to Taylor Swift. I’m definitely not one of those people, but I can acknowledge that we’re all different in our own ways. We hear things differently too – some of us can hear certain higher or frequencies while others can’t… and just like there’s no such thing as the perfect movie or song because all of us have different tastes and preferences, there’s no such thing as the perfect pair of earphones because we all hear differently.

Designer: Nocs

Click Here to Buy Now: $99 $150 ($51 off). Hurry, exclusive to YD readers only! Sale ends September 30th, 2021.

While every single audio tech company tries to arduously build what they believe are the ‘best’ earphones or headphones, there’s a crucial step that they all leave out – testing your hearing. Just the way you test your eyesight while getting prescription spectacles (instead of just assuming you’ve got bad eyesight and wearing thick lenses), it’s important to test your hearing while buying TWS earphones too – a process that Nocs believes is key to the entire user experience. The Nocs NS1100 Air are perhaps one of the only pairs of earphones that actually calibrate to your hearing, so that they sound good to YOU.

The process takes all of 3 minutes and occurs just once – right as you wear the earphones for the first time. The earphones come along with the Nocs smartphone app which uses Audiodo’s cutting-edge audiometry to generate an incredibly precise and thorough model of a user’s sense of hearing. The entire process takes under 3 minutes and runs calibration for each ear separately, specifically tuning the audio exactly to your preferences and your hearing.

Designed for music, calls, and everything in between, the earbuds come equipped with 9.2mm graphene drivers that boast of incredibly low distortion and higher bandwidth. They even sport hybrid active noise cancellation, orchestrated by 4 MEMS microphones that cancel out external audio while being able to clearly isolate and pick up your voice while you’re talking on calls. Additionally, they come with transparency mode too, allowing you to listen in on the world around you – a feature that’s made even more useful considering that the NS1100 Air have a stunning 9 hour battery life (that gets bumped up to 30 hours with the charging case).

While the audio calibration is easily the Nocs NS1100 Air’s most impressive feature, it’s worth noting how well the TWS earbuds are designed too. The earbuds are unsettlingly tiny and sit discreetly in your ear without any annoying stem poking out. Their compact design allows the charging/carrying case to be pretty compact too, and while in your ear, there’s a lower likelihood of the earphones falling off because of the secure fit thanks to the use of silicone ear-tips.

Designed by Nocs, a trueblue audio company that’s been designing audio gear for deejays and audiophiles since 2009, the NS1100 Air are their smallest and most advanced TWS earbuds yet. With a surprisingly compact design, they still deliver crystal clear audio thanks to those graphene drivers, and boast of 9 hours of use (more than even the AirPods Pro)… and that calibration feature just sets them apart as the only pair of consumer-grade earbuds that actually takes the audio experience seriously, and acknowledges the fact that every user is different and deserves a uniquely personal listening experience.

Click Here to Buy Now: $ $99 $150 ($51 off). Hurry, exclusive to YD readers only! Sale ends September 30th, 2021.

When you’re not using it to brew tea, you could turn it into a prop for your Lego Mario set.

OTOTO‘s Tea Trap puts a fun spin on the art of brewing tea. Unlike those boring metal infusers, the Tea Trap models itself on a carnivorous plant that chomps down on your tea leaves. Once the Tea Trap’s stomach (or mouth) is full, just dunk it in a cup of hot water, and the tea begins infusing through the perforations on the sides of the infuser. Use the Tea Trap’s elongated handle to stir it around till your tea reaches the right color, and when you’re done, the Tea Trap will very kindly spit out the tea-leaves into the waste-bin, because nobody likes eating tea leaves… not even carnivorous plants!

Designer: OTOTO

The Tea Trap is made from stainless steel along with BPA-free silicone. It’s 100% food-safe and dishwasher-safe too.