What The Block

Postpartum Depression (PPD) is the most common complication of childbirth – affecting 1 in 7 women in the US. Women are more likely to experience emotional difficulties following the birth of a baby than at any other time in their life. PPD also has a significant impact on the emotional, behavioral and intellectual development of the child. Recognizing its importance, the US task force recommends all mothers to be screened for PPD, yet less than half of health professionals routinely do so.

Teemo’s goal is to bring “fitness fun with friends” to the large, stressed-out, and underserved portion of the population who want to exercise but don’t. Conceived, funded, designed, developed, and launched by Ammunition in partnership with Bonnier R&D, Teemo is a fitness adventure game that combines proven training techniques, social connection, and entertaining adventures to help people get and stay moving. From a design perspective, Teemo is above all an experiment in moving beyond conventional (often cynical) approaches to gamification and social computing. From the start, we set our sites on something better than points schemes, leaderboards, peer pressure, life logging, and self-quantification. Ultimately, we took inspiration from the notion that the greatest source of happiness and motivation is caring, stable, and supportive connections to close family and friends. Teemo’s big idea is so simple, we think it’s radical. Getting together with friends to have fun in ways that also happen to increase overall fitness.

Iuvo is a kit of stand-alone smart modules, sensors and actuators that perceive their layouts and physical configurations and compile parts of the code. It supports creatives in designing and prototyping interactive artifacts.Iuvo is a tool designed for creatives without a background in coding or electronics. It is a further step towards the abstraction of prototyping boards currently available in the market; circuits and textual code are replaced with snap-fits and visual programming.It is a physical product and also a service where the projects created are automatically updated on the web and available to other users. Thus the content is generated continuously and everyone can benefit from other people's achievements.People can start learning through a system based on hands-on activities, rewards and challenges.Using Iuvo, anyone with an idea of an interactive project has the opportunity to make it by combining existing projects in a smooth and straightforward way. This said, it is still possible to start from scratch, using the visual language provided that can be directly manipulated in the browser-like editor.It aims at facilitating makers in developing their ideas by providing a learning experience rather than a learning experience rather than a technological tool.

This project was created as part of investigating how silicone can be used as a medium for soft robotics and HCI.

Carbon Insights helps people to learn about the CO2 impact of their purchases based on payment data and a personal profile. In addition, we give educational tips on how to lower your carbon footprint. By applying the lean startup method, we were able to accelerate innovation and be the first Dutch bank to make this available within the consumer banking app.

VISO's aim is to provide a transformative solution accessible to a broad audience, bringing attention to how in-car technology could be harnessed to enhance focus, rather than serve as a distraction.

This project rethinks the way Oslo University Hospital handles the entire referral and diagnostic process for breast cancer patients.

DODU is an AR-based multimodal interactive literacy teaching aid for Chinese children aged 3-7 with dyslexia, which calls children's senses such as sight, hearing, touch and movement through Augmented Reality and multimodal interaction, so as to achieve effective and interesting literacy training effects.

While typically not represented by keepsakes, memories of food are some of my strongest. Last year I tried to bring a feeling of comfort back to the isolated existence I experienced in America in the midst of a global pandemic, through food and cooking. Working with spices common in my family’s recipes and incorporating them into a textile allowed me to capture the comfort of scent; just the smell of a spice can trigger fond, powerful memories and transport you to a specific place and time. As a textile designer, I used food and sensorial memories to make home almost palpable- within reach. Through the magic of fragrance, I not only wanted to invite people to experience the warmth of my kitchen, but wanted to design a fabric that they could take, easily transport and use in their own spaces to comfort themselves when they felt isolated. Woven on the Jacquard Loom, Aromatics is an amalgamation of technology and handiwork. The textile is filled with spices commonly used in my family's Indian recipes. Designed with a complex woven structure to form a transparent 3-D gauze weave, pockets are woven in to the fabric that can be filled. Aromatics was made to be hung on a wall with the intention to fill up a space with warmth and envelope it in the aroma of spices. Interactive, sensorial and comforting- This textile is the materialisation of nostalgia through food.

Australian hip-hop legends Hilltop Hoods and Google Play collaborated to create an interactive music video that harnesses mobile capabilities to capture a world turned upside down, as experienced by band member Dan Smith during his son’s leukemia treatment. Two 3D environments rendered in code are navigable by rotating the phone, translating a personal journey into a powerful digital experience. Each listen on Google Play generated a donation to support young Australians living with cancer.