Felt
Project Overview
About
Felt is a new integrated communication system designed for the DeafBlind community, aiming to bridge the gap in conveying emotions during conversations. Comprising a 3-part mechanism, the system uses a shirt-worn pin with a camera and microphone to detect speech, tone, and facial expressions. This data feeds into a wrist-worn braille reader for real-time text display. Simultaneously, solenoid-driven actuators on the arm reflect the speaker's emotions with varying tap intensities through the emotion-conveying tap patterns of the ProTactile system. This innovative solution promises a more holistic and intuitive communication experience.
Team
Alexandra Weiner
Harvard University
Al is a designer with a focus on health equity. She combines practices in service design, participatory research, and team organization to take a systems-approach to human-planet health challenges. At Harvard, she conducts research in HCI in the Harvard Engineering Department and at Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School. She previously ran a participatory design non-profit in the mental health space and led a behavior change group that focused on frontline education, team skills, and organizational change.
Priyanka Pillai
Harvard University
Priyanka is a designer and user researcher from India interested in designing for healthcare, accessibility, and social impact. At Harvard, she’s interested in exploring accessible and inclusive methodologies and products using system thinking within niche socio-political contexts. She has previously worked on interventions that scaffold the business ventures of farming and artisanal communities, and projects that looked at maternal healthcare in rural India.
Julius Stein
Harvard University
Julius is an engineer and programmer with a background in education. Outside of class, Julius is a researcher in the AI Technologies group at MIT Lincoln Laboratories. At Harvard, Julius pursues projects in humanitarian aid, and spends his free time playing on the club Ice Hockey team. Previously, Julius taught Computer Science in Boston and started a non-profit that provided computers and hardware classes to students in Chicago.
Jessica Kwon
Harvard University
Jessica is a designer passionate about designing for social good and connecting novel technologies to those in need. Currently at Harvard, Jessica has a background in HCI and psychology and experience in working as a design consultant, as well as products utilizing AI in the smart home.
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