03-01-2021
Education

Dutch Design Daily

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TU/e Industrial Design www.tue.nl

PulseLink

By 03-01-2021

One Week About – Student Work, Faculty of Industrial Design, TU/e

First year Master project
Annabel van den Broek, Evan Boessen, Agnese Gualandi and Robbie Melaet

Every year, almost 15 million babies are born prematurely worldwide, this is the leading cause of death among children under the age of 5. Currently, researchers are developing a proof-of-principle for a system that is focused on extreme prematures (24 – 28 weeks). This new development: the Artificial Womb, focuses on increasing the chance of survival of these babies, but the natural process of bonding is mostly hindered in this situation.

PulseLink supports the bonding process of the parents with their preterm in the Artificial Womb. Parents interact with PulseLink when they visit their preterm in the hospital. While holding PulseLink, the parent’s heartbeat is transferred to the baby. Simultaneously, they feel the heartbeat of their baby. An user study suggests that the product would positively contribute to the parental wellbeing during visits, further research in the proper context should be done in order to verify this.