PEP Master Game Play event

5 Octobre 2024, Sensorica, Breathing Games, Ludociels and Dr. Sze Man TSE from Saine Justine Hospital in Montreal organized a public event to gather feedback on the use of the PEP Master instrument from patients and from medical professionals. 

 

Context

PEP Master, an open initiative focused on designing and disseminating affordable DIY medical devices for cystic fibrosis therapy. This rare genetic disorder, which affects only approximately 162,000 individuals worldwide, presents significant challenges due to the lack of private-sector investment in rare conditions. PEP Master provides an affordable mechanical therapy based on Positive Expiratory Pressure (PEP) physiotherapy, offering a lifeline to children living with this chronic condition. The physiotherapy uses the PEP Master Instrument, which consists of a computer game and a pressure sensor device. 

The project originated from Breathing Games, an open network of serious game designers, focused on respiratory problems. The development of the hardware component builds on Sensorica’s 15 years of experience in open-source hardware production. Sensorica’s infrastructure supports decentralized production networks by providing tools for transparent contribution tracking, accounting, and equitable distribution of rewards. This foundation enables PEP Master to operate as an ecosystem where stakeholders can contribute and benefit equitably from shared innovation. Sensorica’s proven methodologies have facilitated partnerships with academic institutions, nonprofits, and industry leaders, demonstrating the effectiveness of open, peer-driven production systems.

 

A clinical study using the PEP Master instrument is conducted by Dr. Olivia, under the supervision of Dr. Zse Man TSE. 

 

 

During the event, new computer games created by Yannick were demonstrated and tested by patients. Thomas from Ludociels was in charge of collecting feedback on the user experience.

 

 

Tibi from Sensorica took the opportunity to collect feedback on new hardware features.

 

 

Therapy professionals provided feedback on the merits of the PEP Master game-based therapy for incentivizing proper respiratory exercise parameters.

 

 A new public event is scheduled before the summer of 2025.
 

Sensorica at #GOSH2017

Sensorica was invited to participate in the Gathering of Open Science Hardware (#GOSH2017), which took place between March 22-25th 2017 at the Anacleto Angelini Innovation Centre, Pontificia Universidad Católica, in Santiago, Chile. The event was funded by the Sloan Foundation, with funds dispersed through Public Lab. A total of 90 people (representing both individual work and organisations) attended the event from over 30 countries. This year, Maria Frangos represented Sensorica at the event.

Objectives

The goal of GOSH 2017 was to co-create a roadmap for making Open Science Hardware ubiquitous by 2025 by "expanding the reach [...] within academic research, citizen science and education." 

Another goal of the workshop was to represent a diversity of voices involved in OSH initiatives. Participants from Asia, Africa, South America, Europe and North America attended GOSH 2017, half of whom were women. Achieving gender parity, as well as representing queer and trans voices, were important aspects in ensuring that GOSH 2017 remained open and equitable:

"We strive to make open science hardware open to everybody, regardless of scholarly or professional background, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, ability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, economic background, country of origin or employment, religion, and other differences. Because we come from different backgrounds, it is important to be intentional about providing respectful, equitable spaces — both online and in person — for our community to come together and engage in constructive, respectful discourse. As our manifesto states: GOSH is used for peaceful purposes and causes no harm."

Events

In addition to participating in creating the roadmap, Maria led a design skills sharing session as well as collaborated with other participants in planning the 'unconference' sessions, one of which focused on business models (notes from the session will be available online soon).

Sensorica also participated in a public exhibition on opening day. In addition to creating a poster and flyers highlighting our contribution to Open Science as an OVN, Maria demonstrated the Breathing Games flow meter prototype. 

Approximately 200 people attended the public exhibition, including a school group, university students, professors and GOSH participants. 

In terms of individual specialization, the design skills sharing workshop led by Maria covered the following topics: how designing for connected devices differs from designing for software, creating user stories, designing for empathy, how to create a user flow, and how to create a low-fidelity clickable prototype. More than 10 people attended, none of whom had any design experience. A few were hardware engineers, while others were working in biology, performance art and other disciplines. The feedback Maria received was great and so was what they produced. Workshop participants were able to quickly grasp the design process by applying it to their own ideas, projects and hardware. You can access the design skills presentation here. 

See more on this event HERE.