Historically, human health has been quantified through a person’s vital signs – their blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and body temperature. Our health measurements are an individual, often solitary act.
Cocoon is a generative art installation that questions the relationship between the singular and the communal, our understanding of the human body, and the interconnectedness of life itself.
Historically, human health has been quantified through a person’s vital signs – their blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and body temperature. Our health measurements are an individual, often solitary act.
Yet, the Covid-19 pandemic has been a somber reminder of how our health is more connected to that of others than we believe. Mask-wearing, social distancing, vaccinations, restrictions on movement and activities, have shown us how individual health choices affect the general public and vice versa. This fight has been a collective one. Health is a community endeavor.
This collective element of health is represented in the creation of the Cocoon sculpture itself, which was made as a collaborative effort across people and organizations. The installation’s color and soundscape change in real-time, by visualizing the flow and diversity of people through the use of medical-grade wearable sensors.
EmbracePlus, a medical smartwatch made by Empatica, continuously captures physiological data such as pulse rate, electrodermal activity, and breathing rate. EmbracePlus sends the wearer’s health data to a companion app via Bluetooth. The app then transmits this to the sculpture in real-time. The health data flows through a set of individual rings, reflecting the ongoing passing and renewal of time through light and sound.
EmbracePlus sends the wearer’s health data to a companion app via Bluetooth. The app then transmits this to the sculpture in real-time.
The health data flows through a set of individual rings, reflecting the ongoing passing and renewal of time through light and sound.
Empatica is an MIT spin-off based in Boston, Massachusetts, and Milan, Italy. Empatica focuses on the development, production, and utilization of medical wearables and digital biomarkers, implementing an AI and sensor-based platform for the monitoring and detection of health-related conditions.
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EmbracePlus is a medical smartwatch that enables professionals to remotely achieve the tracking and collection of key health parameters, while also running custom algorithms that can monitor a range of conditions.
Discover EmbracePlusIts compact pod contains custom-made PPG (Photoplethysmography) and EDA (Electrodermal Activity) sensors, a high precision 3D microelectromechanical accelerometer and gyroscope, and a digital thermometer - more sensors than any other health smartwatch. These enable the simultaneous measurement of pulse rate, pulse rate variability, IBI (Inter-beat Interval), skin temperature, respiration rate, oxygen saturation, movement, rest, and other digital biomarkers. EmbracePlus has been awarded grants by the NASA-funded TRISH (in order to monitor human health in space), the HHS, and the US Army Medical Research and Development Command. It has also received the European CE mark as a Class lla medical device, for its ability to consistently provide quality physiological parameters to users.
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