Imagine Intelligent Materials

Design Factory Melbourne

Improving resident care in aged care.

As part of Aalto University’s global Product Development Project (PdP), a team of students from Aalto Design Factory and Design Factory Melbourne developed ‘Carelink’, a smart mattress to detect and prevent incidents in Aged Care Homes. Their solution uses Graphene – a smart material produced by industry partner Imagine Intelligent Materials that can detect pressure, movement, heat and moisture.

Carelink aims to improve the quality of life for elderly people in aged care facilities and reduce the healthcare burden of ageing populations with a simple, easily-integrated mattress and software solution. Carelink uses a mattress with a Graphene-based sensing material which can detect proximity, pressure, rapid movement (indicating seizures or pain), moisture (indicating incontinence) and heat. Via a software application, aged care staff can receive notifications for any alerts detected through the mattress (i.e. a resident falling out of bed). A web application allows the facility’s management to download reports of data input, allowing incident trends to be discovered and therefore the development of tailored preventative solutions for the residents.

The Carelink solution can provide a better quality of care for aged care residents, with faster detection of incidents leading to faster response times.

Concept by Jessica Kearney (Occupational Therapy), Liana Stratsianis (Occupational Therapy), Jessica Wright (Occupational Therapy) and students from Aalto University; Ilari Tillikainen (Mechanical Engineering), Aleksi Huttunen (Mechanical Engineering), Laura Kytömäki (Industrial Design), Pin Tian (HCI & Design) & Uyen Truong (Environmental Engineering)

Industry Partner: Imagine Intelligent Materials.

Carelink in context

The Carelink graphene mattress with smart sensing

Carelink mobile application for nursing staff

Carelink web application for patient history and trends

Working prototyping utilizing Imagine Graphene sensing material

Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.