Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Design and Initial Analysis of a Wearable Device for Anxiety Management

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/2j62sc50h

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  • Deep pressure therapy (DPT) is a method of anxiety relief that uses pressure sensations to lower the stress response produced in the brain, and functions in a manner similar to a hug. Heavily weighted blankets and weighted vests are most commonly used to apply DPT, though recent work has shown that manually-inflated vests can produce similar effects. However, these devices are limited in their portability and usability by their weight or extended delay in activation. In this work, we introduce the Automatic Inflatable DPT (AID) Vest as an automated alternative to existing DPT devices. To inform the design of the AID Vest, we held discussions with an expert in the field and began a focus group study, which is currently ongoing. From the expert discussions, we identified design requirements for the AID Vest and for its improvement in a future empirical study. We then go on to design, fabricate, and conduct an initial evaluation of the AID Vest. Preliminary results show that the proposed device can successfullyproduce a compression effect using soft actuators, that our proposed procedure for inducing and measuring anxiety are viable for a future empirical study, and that a user wearing the AID Vest may experience greater anxiety reduction than a user wearing an unmodified commercial vest.
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