GluPet is a virtual pet living inside a diabetic child’s glucometer that encourages frequent blood-glucose testing, incentivizes good diabetes control, and makes the complicated disease a little less frightening.
Final Paper is available here (PDF)
Related links to GluPet’s progress:
2011/04/03/glucogame-character-sketches/
2011/03/31/prior-art-search-1/
2011/03/28/prototypes-for-two-projects/
Research
Hey guys, I bricked another xbee and found this helpful little bit on Instructables
1. Take the module out of the interface board.
2. Connect the interface board to the computer.
3. Open X-CTU make sure Baud Rate is set to 9600
4. Go to “Modem Configuration”
5. Put a check in the “Always update firmware” box
6. Select proper modem from drop down menu,
7. Select proper function set and firmware version
from drop down menus.
8. Click on the “Write” button. After a few seconds of
trying to read the modem, you will get an Info box
that says Action Needed. At this point, CAREFULLY
insert the module into the interface board.
9. You may get the info box again a short while after,
just use the reset button on the interface board.
I’ve been working a bit on coding the Glupet interface, but have come to the realization that I won’t really be able to test this thing with kids any time soon; only when there is a real online database they can play with or a portable toy.
To test the effectiveness of getting friendly reminders from your pet to check your blood glucose a certain number of times either with a mobile device or a portable device is improbable at this point. For instance, I don’t think most little kids have cell phones, and most parents would rightly not grant me permission to text them 4-5 times a day to tell them to log information into the glupets website. In order to test this with kids, I would probably need to build several portable devices or something that can upload user-input information online somehow.
I can, however, get some adults, perhaps, to test this for me. Not sure if that would show whether or not it would be an effective tool for kids.
I DID start building some look/feel sketches for how the world would appear. I will use these as possible user scenarios in my final presentations/paper Of course, I am calling the Glupy home planet: Glupiter.
Here is another random sketch, but I didn’t like it as much.
I think having a website will be really good for user testing since you can get people to play it over the course of several days instead of just one sitting, since that si the way the device is going to work in the final version..
I think you should do LCD testing before the day you scheduled. LCD’s can be painful you know and you might need more time to fix bugs.
Hey guys, this isn’t for class, but I am having some SERIOUS trouble getting this working, and even with Katherine’s help and patience, I couldn’t get it working…
It’s a call detect circuit that should (I think) detect rf pulses… Here’s the circuit diagram and parts list….
This week, I received my Didget and forced my boyfriend to be the guinea pig. He played the DS game for all of three minutes, and asked if he could just use the meter and make me play the game (he left the bulky white meter at home, however, and took his snazzy sleek Ultra Mini with him instead). The DS game is pretty elaborate, but is a point-and-click adventure, so I imagine it has an end point. From what I can tell, I believe that Bayer envisioned this product being ported for a dozen or so different games to appeal to a range of kids, but the new DS systems no longer have the legacy slot for the meter. I guess that’s my opening.
I am working on the initial logic in Processing for my little GluPets, but also continuing research into glucometers and how they output data. Perhaps someone can help me hack one of these guys?
The Bayer Contour meter doesn’t seem to have a great deal of functionality beyond simple metering. I don’t see anything about the meter having USB connect-ability, for example.
However, the Contour USB version has not only a more robust display, but has a built-in USB plug so that one could then download their information onto the computer. The software has charting and other data vis capabilities, but obviously, not made for kids.
I wouldn’t necessarily worry too much about getting the readings. You could make a very viable prototype just using simulated readings. Somebody else (Scott I think) suggested just using RFID tags to represent the different readings a user could have (high, low, medium) etc.
Having it use real readings would make it difficult to demonstrate anyway since you’d pretty much have to kill your boyfriend to show the creature when it’s really sad or unhappy.
Your research is getting detailed and you are finding new stuff each time, which is really great. But I think you should start prototyping your project from now on. Sometimes the assumptions fail so bad when you prototype it and it will definitely happen to you. You cannot make sure which direction to go, how to continue this project unless you have something working even if it’s not working perfectly. I suggest you do some implementation prototypes and blend it with look and feel for the next step.
This product does a lot of what I was thinking of doing, however, I can’t seem to get the demo game to play. I’ve ordered one for my DS from eBay for $8, which is $60-$80 at medical supplies shops (most meters are fairly cheap $10-$30 because companies make tons of money on selling the testing strips).
Anyway, here is what I have seen of the Didget product so far…
Apparently, Bayer and Nintendo already did this *sigh*
You should still get screen by screen “screen-shots” if their interface if available. Look hard. Also, please document the screen-shots of current medical devices that do this. Look at the interface state-of-the-art for this concept.
I thought I was the only person who knew Captain Novalin again. This makes me so happy.
For what its worth, that game is nearly unplayable.
LOL Joe LQ told me about it just today while I was in the lab. He even has the ROM!!!
Playing around with some ideas for the general look and feel of the gluco-pets (varying from somewhat detailed to very simple). These are super vague style experimentations, so the pets might not (and probably will not) look like any of these…
Bree these look beautiful, very expressive!
Love the sad dragon!
Went to the awesome Materials Symposium. I went because I have an interest in new, smart materials as well as sustainable materials.
There were three great speakers (and one who really should hang out with Clive Dilnot; they could make painfully text-heavy slides together).
The talk given by the Bare Conductive was really cool, especially since the guy spoke to their methods of rethinking materials and innovating by asking others to play with their stuff.
Elisabeth de Senneville showed a great deal of her works using a wide range of materials she’s innovating. I was especially interested in her Electronic Ink bracelets (which uses a technology I wish to play with) and her fiber-optic weaves.
I was also interested in the stuff Alice Chun talked about, especially her examples of work other people are doing in order to assure sustainability. For example, I didn’t know that bamboo could grow a 24 inches over night and also repel bed bugs, or that people have made wool from milk.
Finally, I am not really into scent tech; especially after the heavy smell of flowers gave my already-bogged-down-with-pollen brain a headache.
Revised Domain Mapping
————————————————————
Prior Art for Diabetes
Stuff for kids with T1D for the most part sucks.
Wow. Just wow. This shirt is from cafe press. I wonder how many moms bought this for their kids and made them wear it.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/fKz_c_VbaSo
Something somewhat similar, from the DiabetesMine design competition
The Diabetics Rockstar webpage. It’s a social network with music playing from the site. A bit over-the-top.
A kit put together by the American Diabetes Association for kids. Kind of parent-oriented.
———————————————————————
Prior Art, technology related
The original Tamagachi
Pokemon, a virtual pet battling game
Neopets, a virtual pet online universe with a social network and even its own stock market.
I still am on the fence regarding which project to choose. Here are some role/imp/LAF prototypes to communicate my idea better:
GLUCO GAMING
Easiest things about making prototypes:
1- I had a wealth of ideas of how I imagined these two things being used.
2- I can easily imagine what roles they would play in people’s lives because they make sense to me and reflect needs already in my life
The hardest things about making these prototypes:
1- Delineating between implementation prototyping and L&F prototyping was a bit difficult because in my call detection idea for example, I don’t envision a set look and feel just yet. The device is meant to live in something else, essentially.
2- I still haven’t figured out how to implement the circuit for the RF detector because I have trouble translating schematics to breadboard
Ted just told Sven he looks like “an Eastern European Gangster”.
Materials thing; not sure if anyone saw it.
http://amt.parsons.edu/2011/03/03/materials-exploration-symposium-march-31/
Evander Batson
xinhe feng
FluffyLeecy
frankiezek
gaboratparsons
giang063
gracegotlost
lauriewaxman
Siwen Li
Tim Xiaofeng Lin
Yury Gitman
mar28th
Max(TONG WEN)
Soohyun
sabotai
Susan Lin
Oylum and 
breegeek, and 
scottpeterman, and 
hilalkoyuncu are discussing. 
Making Toys 
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