Using wearable technology to gain insight into children's physical and social behaviors

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, System Design and Management Program, Engineering and Management Program, 2016.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 71-74).Due to social and financial demands, at least 61% of households have both parents working. Parents and children spend 8 to 10 hours away from each other on a daily basis. During this time, there is very limited communication between parents and the children. Parents have little visibility into what happens during the day with their children and have to heavily rely on the basic notes provided by the teachers. Alternatively, their children have to communicate to them the happenings of their day. Young children and children with special needs have a much harder time communicating the details of their day to their parents. Wearable technology is going through a revolution with 1 in 5 Americans owning a wearable device. There are already many devices on the market which measure biological functions. As a result, we are presented with an opportunity to close the communication gap using technology to gather data on children while they are away from their parents. This data can be analyzed to gain better insight into children's social and physical behaviors. An online survey was conducted for this thesis to understand the potential market. Research was done to understand what physiological factors would be of interest to parents as well as other factors. Results concluded that parents were in fact interested in receiving data about their children. They were most interested in knowing their child's location and when their child was experiencing a stressful situation. Based on the results of the survey, a device is proposed to help address this problem. An approach for a phased rollout is provided as well as an experiment to gather data.by Sagini Ramesh.S.M. in Engineering and Managemen