EECE

2750
Waleed
Meleis

THE SOUND
BRIGHT APP
By Colleen Gallagher and Tyler Paskowski

December 2nd, 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Abstract
Introduction and Related Work
Design Specification

2
2-3
4

Design Overview

5-6

Design Details

6-7

Parts

Completion Plans

References

Appendix

10-16

Abstract:
This project focuses on the problems concerning those who suffer from cerebral palsy
and other similar diseases that cause physical and cognitive disabilities. The end users in mind
are the children who attend the Carter School, a public school in Boston for the disabled.
Because these children are often confined to their wheelchairs, they lack the freedom and ability
to move and therefore, their lung health suffers. Without exercise or adequate movement, a child
will not develop appropriate lung capacity and as a result, the long term health of the child will
suffer. Children with cerebral palsy often develop lung problems such as pneumonia that can
sometimes lead to death. The solution being proposed is an iPad app that will improve a childs
lung capacity in a stimulating and effective way. The app will incorporate visual and or audio
feedback based on the audio input from the child. In simple terms, the child will make a sound
and as a result, a sound clip will play or a light will slowly expand based on the decibel level.
This will hopefully encourage the child to make more sounds that are louder resulting in an
increased lung capacity. There are no other apps that focus on the specific needs of this end user.
There are apps for increasing lung capacity for normally functioning people and athletes, but
none for those that need a fun and stimulating environment to slowly increase their capacity
through the production of noise. The basic overview of this project can be seen in appendix A.

Introduction and Related Work:

Our project targets students of the Carter School who suffer from a broad range of
cognitive and physical disabilities, the main aliment being cerebral palsy. This disease restricts
the childs range of motion, limits their ability to move and confines them to a wheelchair.
Respiratory Health is constantly a major concern for children who suffer from cerebral palsy and

similar diseases because it prevents the child from sustaining normal lung function, which can
lead to serious health problems. In fact, the life expectancy is not much lower than that of a
normal person for those with cerebral palsy. Although this is the case, many die before the age of
20 due to secondary medical complications associated with primary neurological dysfunction
(Braverman). In fact, respiratory infection and diminished pulmonary function rank as the chief
causes of morbidity and mortality (Braverman). A child must have a healthy respiratory system
to breathe properly, cough correctly, and properly clear out their airways. This can be a very
difficult task because these children do not have the capability to move their limbs or even talk.
One way to promote respiratory health for children with severe disabilities is to
encourage them to use their lungs daily. The acts of making noise, singing, yelling, all require a
child to use various respiratory muscles. But finding a way to motivate children to make these
noises can prove to be difficult. There are engaging toys for children out there, however they are
very expensive and not many are specific to this exact problem. For example, a company called
Snoezelen creates toys that offer different kinds of stimulus from music through vibrations in
furniture to tubes filled with water that create bubbles and flash lights (Snoezelen). These are
engaging for children with these types of disabilities, but they don't motivate children to perform
a certain activity to receive the stimulus. Specifically, there is no device out there that motivates
a child to make sounds and increase their lung capacity, which is crucial to their overall health
and well-being. There are apps out there that promote increasing lung capacity, but their target
audience is athletes and other normal functioning people. They are neither simple nor engaging
enough to get the job done for these children. There should be a device that is basic enough to
demonstrate the cause and effect of a child making vocal noises to cause a visual display. Once a
child makes the connection they will want to see the effect again, and they will know how to do

it. Specifically, we want the visual display to incorporate varying amounts of light and audio
clips depending on the amount of vocal feedback the microphone receives. This will hopefully
motivate the kids to continue to make their sounds louder to receive for feedback from the
device, thus increasing lung capacity and overall health.

Design Specification:
For our product, the design will be relatively simple. All a customer needs to do is
download the app onto an iPad, and if needed, purchase a connectable microphone. The app will
be able to utilize the iPads microphone, but if a child needs it to be stronger or closer to his or
her face because of the low decibel of sound production, the attachable one might be more
helpful. When the app is initially started, it will go directly to a menu with various options as
seen in appendix E. The options will include color, sound, or both. If the color button is pressed,
the user will be able to choose between primary colors such as yellow and red because a lot of
the children are visually impaired. This can be seen in appendix F. The program will then start
and as a result of the noise input, the display will output a slowly growing sphere of light of
yellow or red depending on the color picked. This can be seen in appendices C and D. If the user
chooses the sound button, the next screen will provide three options for possible sound clips as
seen in appendix G. Because we are designing for the Carter School specifically, we will get
their feedback and program specific sound or music clips that the children respond best to. If
needed, we can also add more option buttons, but for now we will keep it simple with 3. When
an option for a sound clip is chosen a screen such as that shown in appendix H and once the child
make a noise, the music or noise will start playing. When the both option is chosen, first the user
will be asked for a color then a sound option and finally when the child makes a sound, the

colored sphere will be present as well as the sound clip. At any time, the user can exit out of the
program by clicking the x in the red circle on the upper left hand side of the screen. If they
change their mind about what options they want for the child, they can always go back to the
initial menu by clicking that button. We want to find the right balance between fulfilling the
childs need for motivation and having the device be hassle-free for the caretaker using it.

Design Overview:
Our product is an enabling toy for a child with a disability to be able to use easily. As an
iPad app, with a microphone clip accessory, the cost will be low. It is a simple cause and effect
product, and thats why it will be better than more complex and expensive products available
today. Our product will specifically target the children attending the Carter School, but can be
utilized for other end users as they see fit. The school already has iPads in its possession, so
creating the app for download and choosing a sufficient microphone piece). Obviously, one does
not need to buy the microphone, but it might be better for targeting specific sounds as well as
picking up small sounds that the microphone alone on the iPad wouldnt be able to. Overall,
because we have a targeted end user in mind, we have specific guidelines to follow and a specific
end goal in mind, which will make the planning and implementation of this project relatively
efficient and easy.
Our project will mainly consisting of app development and software implementation,
which is difficult to outline in a proposal. To start simple, one can look at the diagram in
appendix B. This shows generally how the program will interact with the user with all the menu
options. When prompted, the user has the option to choose a display type, which is either a light
stimulus, sound stimulus, or both. The light stimulus option will provide two options for color:

red and yellow. The sound stimulus will provide two options for type of sound stimulus, either
custom or one of the choices given. These sounds could range from animal noises to music to TV
show clips, whatever the child responds best to. When choosing the both option, the user will
first be prompted to choose a light color and then to pick the type of sound stimulus, just as the
others did. After the choices are made, the program should run and allow the child to make
sounds and receive sensory feedback. There will be an option to quit and the user will return to
the menu to exit out of the app or choose new options and start the process over again.

Design Details:
In order to implement our designs with this project, we need to find a mentor who is more
knowledgeable about app development. Secondly, we need to create a prototype of the basic app
design to test on the end users and show to Marianne to get feedback before programming. The
website we will use is called protio.io to create the prototype. We can then bring this design to
more skilled programmers and experts who can critique our prototype and help us to program it,
whether it is an independent or joint effort. We also need to make sure that we program
appropriate decibel ranges so that it is strong enough to pick up small noises made by the child,
but not necessarily background noise. This problem may be fixed with the attached microphone,
but we may need to figure out how to program to specifically get input from the microphone to
interpret and then produce output on the iPad display. Another possible problem is that the light
stimulus display might be too difficult to program. We may need to start out simple by just
displaying a picture incorporating the different colors of light when a sound is encountered and
then work our way up from there to have varying degrees of light based on sound. The last

implication is that we might have to get specific feedback from Marianne and the other
caretakers about what specific music or sound clips they want.

Parts:
The parts that our product will contain are very simple. If not already owned, the end user
will need an iOS device, an iPad, to be able to use the app. Apple iPads currently sell for $399,
however if the end user wishes, cheaper refurbished or used iPads can be purchased. The only
other part of our product will be a microphone. The price for this device will probably fall within
the $70-90 range, mainly depending on the microphone used. The company, Sweetwater offers
an ideal microphone for about $80 (Rode SmartLav+).
The rest of the parts necessary to create our product are all computer tools. An iOS
software developer will need a workstation to create the software. However, once it is created the
app will be active on the iTunes App Store. The initial software development of the app will
determine software development labor costs. Additionally, labor costs for debugging software
and releasing updates to the app if necessary.

Completion Plans:
For this project to be completed, we need to first work on making our prototype the best
it can be. Through the website proto.io, we were able to create a very simplified version of

what we want our app to look like and how we want it to function. We would like to then show
the simple prototype design to Marianne and see it she likes it so far and if there are any aspects
she wants to change before we take on more difficult steps in the project process. It lacks the
ability to respond to microphone input, which may not be possible with this website, but we will
need to do more research into that. We may need to research more complex and customizable
app prototype developer websites and or discuss these issues with Chris Canal, one of our
programming experts. After we are thoroughly satisfied with our prototype, we need to connect
with a talented group of programmers that can take our prototype and turn it into a working app.
One possible option is to meet and collaborate with students of the club NUHacks which would
be a good chance for networking as well as being a very cost effective solution. We may be able
to take a simplified version of the prototype to this group and receive feedback on what their
capabilities are or if they have any ideas or advice they are willing to share. Once the
programming is done and the app can be published and downloaded onto the iPad, we will let the
children test it and see if they respond well to it. At this stage, we may have to go back multiple
times and debug the code or make small changes to improve its effectiveness.

References:
Braverman, Jane M. Airway Clearance Dysfunction Associated with Cerebral Palsy: An
Overview. Tech. N.p.: Hill-Rom, n.d. Print.
<http://www.protio.io>

"IPad Air." Apple Store (U.S.). N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2014. <http://store.apple.com/us/buyipad/ipad-air>.
"Respiratory Health and Cerebral Palsy." CerebralPalsy.org. Stern Law Group, PLLC, n.d. Web.
19 Nov. 2014. <http://cerebralpalsy.org/information/respiratory-health/>.
Rode SmartLav+." Sweetwater. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/smartLavPls>.
"Snoezelen Sensory Therapy Products." Snoezelen Sensory Therapy Products. N.p., n.d. Web. 16
Oct. 2014. <http://www.snoezeleninfo.com/products.asp>.

Appendix:
[A]

10

[B]

11

[C]

12

[D]

13

[E]

14

[F]

15

16

[G]

17

[H]