THE PRESENT: Year 2056
We are 35 years in the future world after the asteroid crash, witnessing rehabilitation for (A THEME) influenced by (A FUTURE PROJECTION) utilizing (A TECHNOLOGY).
We are witnessing and learning about the ideal form of rehabilitation this imaginary society has evolved.
Below are letters written back to 2021 detailing what we observed and learned.
May this inspire us to begin transforming lives for the better sooner, rather than later.
white collar vs. blue collar injuries/ cost conscious ergonomics/ spatial redesigns
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There wasn't much of an opportunity after the asteroid crash for people to ignore ergonomics in any space.
While there were issues in the world of 2021 in terms of disparities of ergonomic intervention between white and blue collar job spaces, very similar to the disparities different racial groups experience when they enter academic settings: if a student's parents didn't go through the education system, there are many givens they never get the chance to pass along to their children to prepare them.
Little things like it's important to go to a teacher's office hours...
In the same way, in 2021 many employers didn't go out of their way to try to make blue-collar jobs as ergonomic as possible or compensate people for the damage to their bodies, and at the same time, the workers didn't know their rights about what they could or should request...
When we redesigned the spaces for 'blue-collar work' after the asteroid, we firstly demolished the very words Blue Collar and White Collar, which we thought were outmoded and classist terms.
Our new terminologies focus on mobility requirements, ranging from low to medium, to high.
High mobility jobs are often taken by athletic individuals or people for whom their disability gives them an advantage if they take time to move every day.
Ergonomics for each job category are then classified by the movement demands of the work.
More body involvement demands higher pay and a more sedentary job integrates a requirement for some movements.
Interventions focus on the workspace and the mobility requirements of the job, and naturally, we try to replace as many repetitive motions with robots as possible!
Written by Laura Cechanowicz
reducing repetitive injuries/ preventive medicine /biofeedback
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Since the citizens of this post-apocalyptic world can only inhabit small spaces as efforts to decontaminate the surface continue, there has been a great emphasis on preserving bodily function via reducing repetitive movement injuries.
The best way to address these injuries is to invest our time and energy into developing preventative medicine.
To do this, biofeedback machines have become indispensable in determining the ways in which a person's posture or alignment with the use of tools may be off, creating a potential problem in the future.
The biofeedback machine, known as the Motion-Monitor, constantly monitors your mechanics, providing cues when it senses that you have held a harmful posture for too long a period of time.
These signals combine with body-scanning and biofeedback information to provide ergonomic supports made out of a shape-shifting material that is able to separate into individual pieces to accommodate as many body parts that are in need of support as possible.
Written by Anonymous
celebrating life / immersive media / warmth interfaces
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The future is bright.
The opportunities for virtual travel to explore the world from the comfort of VR has evolved to near perfection.
Want to enjoy the shores of Maui?
You can feel the warmth of the sand.
Hear the sounds of seagulls scattered with spatial acoustics.
The ability to virtually travel and celebrate the wonders of the planet like never before is incredible.
Since the asteroid, I have not physically seen my family.
However, I frequently travel with their avatars on these virtual vacations.
It is rejuvenating to feel their hugs, even if we are so separate in this new world.
Loneliness and isolation are now considered problems of the past.
It is a great time to explore and feel alive.
Written by Morgan
rehabilitation/ digitizing empathy/ VR overcoming care barriers
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Rosa is a 35 year-old woman who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She has been managing her condition, but a recent medication change has worsened her MS symptoms to the point that she can't even get out of bed. Her doctor has started her back on her Botox therapy to reduce physical body rigidity and get her back on track to move, but Rosa has lost her motivation. Due to the pandemic, her friends have moved away and her usual community-based exercise groups are not available.
Tele-rehab is okay, but it's really awkward to keep moving the camera so that her PT can see her feet etc. The PT has no away to get nuanced information about Rosa's movements through a camera lens alone.
Rosa's sister got her a new VR headset and asks her to check out an app - VRPT. The app comes with additional sensors that are easy to insert into her shoes or strap onto her feet or legs. using VR Rosa sees an image of who she can be - a lady standing tall. This motivates Rosa to make a similar effort. The sensors track nuanced movement from Rosa and this data is sent back to her PT.
On actual PT visits, Rosa's PT is able to join her in VR and walk around Rosa to see how her joints move for each exercise. That's not all - Rosa can connect with other patients via the app and play games together. No longer is rehab, even in the pandemic, a solo activity.
Written by Mithra V.
making sense of life/stronger together / the process of empowerment
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My community is global, and online. We gather across time zones and share experiences in our native languages. The Stronger Together platform automatically translates our stories and conversations, written and spoken, so we can connect even when we can't speak or understand the same languages. When one of our members, a stroke survivor, was having trouble playing with her young grandchild - she was having trouble transitioning between the whimsical and creative play ideas - she came onto the ST platform and shared from her heart the way it made her feel disconnected from her family and from her prior, creative self. I got a notification that she was live, and like stars popping up in the sky as it turned to night, faces and message bubbles filled the screen. We listened to her, we shared similar challenges. We connected. We didn't solve her problem, but we shared in the reality that we have changed in ways our families don't understand and can't relate to. We encouraged each other, reminding her that she is still creative, she is still herself, just a different self than she was yesterday or last month.
Written by Miranda Donnelly, Occupational Scientist
improved connections / humanized remote tech / play and healthcare
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It was my first day in the Catch factory, as I looked out at the assembly line of the seemingly uninteresting balls that I thought of the road that brought us there...
It started slow at first, but then it grew exponentially. People could handle the flu like symptoms the pathogen imposed on its unwilling host, but they extended loss of motor functions, particularly hand-eye coordination caused an avalanche of problems. Traffic accidents, cooking accidents, and just mundane miscalculations resulting in dropped ice cream cone. The healthcare system was not ready for the demand for physical therapy. That's when a miracle product, Catch saved the day. A sensory remote ball, that allowed doctors to work remotely with patients, spending a few minutes everyday, while maximizing time and value, changed how we could rehabilitate our uncoordinated population. And we found that the more coordinated we became as a community, the more coordinated we became as individuals.
... I looked at the ball, amazed by how such a simple object could contain so much. I reached for it, my nimble fingers extended... A screeching sound.
Written by Morgan
CARE DELIVERY ROBOT DRONES
Illustration art by Julie Lutz
jurisprudence device/ chronic pain/ 3D environments that effectively target problems without a clinician present
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This community understood the connection between chronic pain and psychosocial factors. They realized that some chronic pain conditions were triggered by not having an awareness of emotions and feeling hopeless in the face of external obstacles. They developed the Jurisprudence device to help each other think about the different emotional triggers that led to their chronic pain. Every time a community member entered this device and discovered the many reasons why they were experiencing chronic pain, the AI would learn and categorize these factors. Then, this information was used to recommend possible factors to other individuals joining this device with similar experiences. Individuals would feel connected by their experiences and supported by the community who was willing to share their experiences to help others.
Written by Laura
exploration/ body trauma/ liquid exoskeleton
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Jjay had always been a daredevil, had always wanted to push his physical body to the limits. So it was no surprise that rather than attending college, he joined the military and became a deep sea rescue diver. After ten years, tragedy struck during a particularly difficult extraction where he was forced to use his body to shield a civilian from an explosion in one of New JamaIca’s aquadomes. He lost all use of his body below his neck. He was distraught, restless until his CO told him about a secret new Space Force program, where specialists would be shot into space in specialized liquid metal exoskeleton space pods, and they’d were looking for volunteers to monitor and protect their countries interests in the the newly colonized asteroid feilds near Jupiter. This would in essence turn him into a living satellite, and the exosuit was entirely mind controlled, making him one of the new space rangers
Written by JT
celebration of life/ neuropathies / immersive storytelling
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“Do you know who Brie Larson is?"
That wasn't the first question I expected to hear as I entered the chat room for people with assorted neuropathies, connecting from across the globe. I quickly discovered that Brie Larson was the virtual avatar of their behavior change ecosystem, labeled "HERO," that was designed to guide them through their rehabilitation therapies. Rather than a short-term intervention, HERO was designed to walk with the community, to guide them at all stages of their rehabilitation process- from the introductory VR education on what it's like to live with neuropathy, to AR exercises and interventions. At every step of the way, Brie Larson- as Captain Marvel- was there to guide, encourage, and support the group. The pain, the lack of sensation, it didn't define the community- it encouraged them to rise above, to be the hero in their own life.
Written by Marielle
childhood developmental delays/ sustainability/ transportation
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Solar powered, individual transportation pods have been a boon to the West Lake Academy for Children. While we previously struggled to get children to our school, having to rely on parents driving them, as many of our students didn't have the capacity to travel on public transit, they can now safely come to school in a Transportation Pod. We have also been able to collect all of the best resource and teacher for differently abled students into one place, no longer having to spread ourselves thin, across schools in the city. Every morning, a Individual Transportation pod arrives at the front door of our students' homes, and their whisked away in a clean, safe and environmentally friendly pod. Some of the students come from over an hour away, but they're comfortable and well secured in their pods. While traveling, our Transportation Coordinators can remotely monitor their pod of 5 students, checking in on each one periodically. Their teachers can also video call in, starting a lesson early or helping the student select an educational video to watch or game to play while traveling to campus. When they arrive, the Transportation Coordinators, help the students disembark from their individual pods. At the end of the day, the students line up, some get into their pods unassisted and travel home, while those requiring more help are assisted by the Transportation Coordinators.
Embodiment: The ability to meet the individual needs of every one of our students is our finest achievement at West Lake Academy for Children. While we invest a lot of resources in their intellectual development and fulfillment at the Academy, being able to cater to their physical needs and provide them comfort and safety is our finest achievement. Being able to consider their different physical needs helps in ensuring they can have the most fulfilling and active childhood possible.
What if transportation was customizable to people's physical needs?
What if we designed products for children that were customizable to different stages of development?
Written by Lizzy
childhood developmental delays/ exoskeletons/ technology for independence in aging
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Jeannie is a 25-year-old woman who was born with two unknown genetic disorders which affected her motor learning. In addition, the asteroid's fallout affected her neurologically in an asymmetrical way with a limp, one arm short than the other and missing fingers (birth defect). She also suffered some randomly occurring periods of mutism and her speech is delayed. Her parents died soon after the asteroid impact. She was raised in a special facility for children who were orphaned and affected by the crash in other ways. In the beginning, she had assistance by humans and robots, but there were so many children affected that we could not fabricate robots fast enough. As Jeannie aged out of the facility, she was fitted with an exoskeleton that can compensate for her motor disabilities and an implant that can operate autonomously when she is unable to express speech. The exoskeleton has recorded enough of her routine to automate her movements and compensate for changes and interruptions. It contains multiple environmental sensors, as well as the ability to make some decisions on her behalf, programmed by her and a committee of ethicists. The exoskeleton is made of recyclable materials, but when Jeannie dies, it will be able to fit to another person without much modification. When she is sleeping, the exoskeleton can be loaned to others nearby.
The childcare robots are child-friendly and feel like animals or little humans, depending on the needs of the child. Some want them smooth; some want them furry, etc. Their touch adapts to the need of the child. Playing with them feels like playing with a trusted friend.
The exoskeleton is a clear material that blends with skin or clothes and is minimally visible unless the user wants fashion customization. One can fully bathe with it and do any necessary activity. It can also be customized with hair or skin or anything one needs to make a statement of feeling more comfortable.
Written by Marientina
diabetes/ long-term provider connection / biodegradable hernia mesh in implantation devices
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Dear medical colleagues,
Watching the rehab process for Marg was truly revolutionary. Instead of our traditional methods of injection-based insulin each patient has a long-term care team that works to find the treatment that is best expected to have positive patient feedback. Injection-based insulin treatments are still there for patients accustomed to them, but their medical technology has moved far past our constant monitoring and blood pricks. In Marg's care, her care team decided with her that implantation of a device into her pancreas to help improve insulin production. This device would not only jumpstart Marg's pancreas to produce more insulin but would over time be absorbed by her body, helping to feed further regeneration of the pancreatic function. The only non-biodegradable aspect of the implant is a small sensor/Bluetooth combo that will report on how well bodily integration with the device is going. Once absorbed completely, there will be almost no trace of Marg ever needing to have an implant, but the nutrients released by the device as it was absorbed would help put her diabetes in full remission. We currently have primitive versions of biodegradable implants in our time, but it is incredible to see what an improvement they can make. Marg's care team will be in contact even after diabetes is no longer a constant issue. Coming from a time when you're lucky to get your doctor's nurse practitioner, this alone is a medical revolution. Marg has the ability to ask any doctor in her care team how her implant is doing, and her care team is able to freely communicate and share records between each other. One of these is an option we can implement in the near future, and after seeing its outcomes I write this letter to urge my colleagues to adopt such long term comprehensive care tactics.
Best,
~Stacia
Written by Anastacia