During a one-week stay at the Fraunhofer Summer Camp, four teams of two scientists and 4 designers worked
with new technologies to fight current and future pandemics. My Team designed a meditation device that
measures the human olfactory sense during a daily ritual. It helps fight Covid-19 and neurodegenerative
diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
The human sense of smell is a good indicator for neurodegenerative diseases; a slight loss can be detected
over time before any other tests indicate the emergence of the disease. It's also an indicator for the
coronavirus, although in a shorter time frame.
Current devices are massive. The first challenge was breaking down the still massive technical device, Hans
Trinkaus called "Hat Lab" since it wasn't user-friendly. Our design uses a basic EEG combined with a PEA scent
and CO2 cleanser.
Collecting data about the olfactory sense on a large scale would allow us to train an AI to better detect
diseases early on and improve the overall public health status. So the most significant challenge from a user
perspective was the question, "How might we get young people to use this screening technology daily?"
To answer this question, we decided to use a self-care approach. A meditation mask that helps you meditate &
relax while testing your sense of smell allows us to collect data. With this data, we can not only help the
individual but everyone. We go from an interest in self-care to a healthier community.
The Mask allows you to lay down and has an integrated light panel that stimulates your senses. Not only do
the light effects help you fade away, but they also allow for a cleaner EEG scan. The scent and CO2 cartridges
can be easily swapped. The device is accompanied by a small app to get started and give you feedback.
