CaT Pin

BackgroundThe CaT Pin (Conversation as Therapy) is a discreet, low-cost wearable to monitor loneliness. In the form of a lapel pin or brooch, the device detects the presence or absence of conversation. When the wearer drops below a certain number of words/hour a text message is sent to a loved one or volunteer health care worker, providing a nudge to make a phone call or drop around for a conversation. Loneliness has significant consequences to health including disrupted sleep, elevated blood pressure, increases in cortisol, increased depression and heart disease and for ‘extreme loneliness' a 27% increase in mortality. Contribution Evolving through deep collaboration between design, engineering and healthcare, the form of the CaT Pin is customised to the aesthetics of the wearer by imprinting its surface with cherished jewellery, medals or textiles. While the importance of word count in language acquisition, IQ and autism in children is well recognised, little work has been done on the use of word count as a proxy for loneliness in the elderly. The CaT Pin supports further research activities into loneliness assessment and contributes to a dataset on interaction rates for our ageing population.Significance The CaT Pin won the 2018 Telstra Ageing Well Design Challenge providing funding to coalesce a team to address the complex issue of loneliness detection and mitigation. The CaT Pin is at functioning prototype stage and was presented to the 2019 Victorian Royal Commission into Mental Health as an example of resilience enabling technology. It was exhibited as part of Agency by Design: Expressive Design for Disability at Artisan Gallery, Queensland’s premier gallery for design and part of the Australian Craft and Design Centres Network, a group of peak organisations from all states and territories including Craft Victoria and Australian Tapestry Workshop. CaT Pin has received significant press; it was featured on ABC News, Channel 7 News, 3AW and ABC Radio.背景 CaT Pin（Conversation as Therapy，即会话治疗别针）是一款隐蔽、低成本的可穿戴孤独监测设备。该设备采用领针或胸针的形态，可检测对话是否存在。当佩戴者每小时的话语量低于设定阈值时，设备将向其亲友或志愿医护人员发送短信，提醒对方拨打电话或登门开展交谈。 孤独感对健康存在显著危害，包括睡眠紊乱、血压升高、皮质醇水平上升、抑郁与心脏病风险增加；对于"极端孤独"人群，其死亡率甚至会提升27%。 贡献 本设备经由设计、工程与医疗领域的深度协作研发而成，其外观可通过在表面印制佩戴者珍视的首饰、奖章或织物进行定制，以贴合佩戴者的审美偏好。尽管话语量在儿童语言习得、智商评估及自闭症研究中的重要性已得到广泛认可，但目前以话语量作为老年人孤独感的替代评估指标的相关研究仍较为匮乏。CaT Pin可为孤独感评估的相关研究提供支持，并有助于构建面向老年人口交互频率的数据集。 意义 CaT Pin曾荣获2018年Telstra Ageing Well Design Challenge，该赛事为团队组建提供了资金支持，以应对孤独感检测与缓解这一复杂议题。目前CaT Pin处于功能原型阶段，曾作为赋能韧性的技术案例，在2019年维多利亚州皇家精神卫生委员会上进行展示。 该设备还曾作为"设计赋能：面向残障群体的表达性设计"（Agency by Design: Expressive Design for Disability）展览的一部分，在昆士兰州顶尖设计美术馆Artisan Gallery展出；该展览隶属于澳大利亚工艺与设计中心网络（Australian Craft and Design Centres Network），该网络涵盖Craft Victoria（维多利亚工艺协会）与Australian Tapestry Workshop（澳大利亚挂毯工坊）等来自全澳各州及领地的顶级行业组织。 CaT Pin获得了大量媒体关注，曾登上ABC新闻、第七频道新闻、3AW及ABC广播的报道版面。