Mixed media interactive installation: microcontrollers, radios, vibration motors, pulse sensors and soft toys, 2018

The project was developed in the context of the Parkland School shooting incident in Florida on Valentines Day, 2018 when seventeen teenagers died and watching parents on TV recall waiting to hear if their child had survived the incident. Typically we think of cell phones as useful in the case of emergency but what if calling your loved one endangers their life? Cell phones can’t be used by children in a school during an active shooter incident. Pulse Check-in (prototype for constant monitoring of loved one) is a prototype of a product for parents to know if their child is alive. The child would wear a pulse sensor around their chest and radio transmit their heartbeat to a huggable object, such as a sloth, whose heart would vibrate, in unison with theirs. It would allow parents to feel their child and not have to wait to be told their child had survived.