The Calming Cushion

Reducing anxiety through tactile communication

Funded by The Brigstow Institute, Bristol University

Research Partners:

• Dr Chris Kent‘s (Experimental Psychology) research focuses on the perception of simple sensations and how anxiety affects our cognition. Chris will be supervising the behavioural studies and focus groups.

• Prof Jonathan Rossiter (Engineering Mathematics and Bristol Robotics Lab) is a leading innovator of soft systems for robotics. Jonathan’s work is in human interaction, wearable assistance and healthcare including tactile sensing.

• Annie Lywood (sooothe.co.uk) is an e-textiles designer. Her work focuses on exploring the sensory benefits of interactive textiles to address social connectivity and emotional wellbeing.

• Emily Crowe is a Research Associate and Cognitive Psychologist.

• Emily Ball is an MSc student focusing on behavioural testing of students.

• Alice Haynes is a PhD student working on soft robotics.

The research team explored the role of soft interactive technology to remotely communicate empathy and emotions. We researched which textures and materials provide comfort and create positive emotions.Together the team will created a ‘Calming Cushion’ prototype that is a soft-and-smart object that:

• Is pleasant to hold and interact with

• Senses human markers of action and behaviour

• Acts intelligently to reduce anxiety

The ‘Calming Cushion’ aims to induce a sense of calm and to reduce anxiety through natural, affective and tactile communication. It has been a wonderful experience working on this project and we were very excited about the feedback from user testing with experts, students and dementia patients. People wanted to buy them as soon as they are on the market. We aim to get funding to develop this project further.

Thank you to all the team!