PneuMat: Pneumatic Interaction System for Infant Sleep Safety Using Shape-Changing Interfaces

Abstract

Sleep plays an integral role in human health and is vitally important for neurological development in infants. In this study, we propose the PneuMat, an interactive shape-changing system integrating sensors and pneumatic drives, to help ensure sleep safety through novel human-computer interaction. This system comprises sensor units, control units and inflatable units. The sensor units utilize information exchange between infants and the system, and detect the infant's sleeping posture, sending raw data to control units. For better sleep experience, the inflatable units are divided into nine areas. The inflatable units are multi-mode, can be independently inflated in different areas, and can be inflated in different areas together. We aim to ensure sleep safety by ensuring that infants stay in a safe sleeping position while in bed, by autonomously actuating the PneuMat's shape-changing capability. In this article, we describe the division of PneuMat, the design of the control unit, integration of the sensors and our preliminary experiments to evaluate the feasibility of our interaction system. Finally, based on the results, we will discuss future work involving the PneuMat.