The AstroBeat is a multi-sensory interactive installation that allows children to play music and use their imaginations. It is a physical environment that can occupy a child’s attention in a hospital waiting room with a joyful music-based activity. By doing this, it helps alleviate the fear and anxiety that children in the hospital feel. The design allows three children to play with it at once, fostering collaboration among patients. The space theme contextualizes our project within The Children's Hospital at Montefiore and its Carl Sagan Discovery Program. After four months of research, user testing, and design iterations, our team has developed a prototype of the AstroBeat.

The project is designed for children ages 3 to 8, who have a wide range of skills, attention spans and comprehension. Therefore, we have designed the spaceship to incorporate visual, tactile, and audio elements that would be interesting to many different children. The children who are seeing or hearing impaired would also be able to enjoy the spaceship for this reason. Unlike television or other toys, the spaceship would be something that can bring different children together in collaborative play. There is no text on the spaceship and it needs no instructions. As soon as children see it – no matter what language they speak– they are instantly drawn to it and begin playing. This unifying feature of the project makes it ideal for a place that has many unique visitors.

Project Goals:

To make kids feel empowered by sitting at the helm and controlling the spaceship.

To create new friendships among children passing time in the waiting room

To provide a distraction from the stress of waiting in a hospital

To contextualize the rest of the space-themed pieces in the Montefiore hospital and encourage kids to further reflect on these through imaginative play

To provide a first introduction to the basics of musical composition

To provide exposure to technology outside the traditional computer

References:

Ames, Loius Bates.Your Three [Five, Six, Eight] Year Old. Dell Trade Papaerback, New York, 1979.

Elkind, David, The Huried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon (third edition) , Perseus Publishing, Cambridge Massachusetts, Copyright 2001, 1988, 1981.

Nardi, Bonna A and O'day, Vicki. Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart, MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, 1999

Credits:

Color Theory:Erika Jeaggli

Programming: Kari Martin and Dan Mikesell

Fabrication: Kari Martin, Dan Mikesell, Erika Jeaggli

Sound: Erika Jaeggli, Kari Martin and Dan Mikesell