Designing A Light Therapy Patch and Related Interaction

Abstract

Many professionals suffer from regular pain in the joints as a result of their work. In such cases, traditional light therapy, for example-Infrared light could be beneficial by enhancing blood circulation deep in the skin. Many of joint pain sufferers have used an Infrared lamp to relieve their pain after work at home. They are satisfied with the pain relief effects, but feel restricted in movement during the15-minutes treatment of the Infrared lamp. With the LED technology's development, several kinds of pain relief products which use LEDs instead of Infrared bulbs come to the market. These LEDs pain relief products are smaller and lighter comparing with traditional Infrared lamp, but they still cannot fulfill consumer's requirements on easy operation and high mobility. Users still have limitations due to electronic wires remote, or complex operation way. This need for more mobility and simple operation can be addressed with a wearable pain relief product for joints. By understanding how light acts, and leveraging its expertise in LED and textile technology, Philips has created a unique platform for the development of effective light-based therapies. The first conceptual product of these therapies is the BlueTouch Pain Relief Patch for shoulder and back pain sufferers which uses blue LED light to induce production of Nitric Oxide (NO) in the skin. NO is proven to trigger a number of protective and preventive processes in the body, helping to heal in a natural manner. Based on this blue light platform for pain relief Philips want to further discover the opportunities of this kind of blue light patch for joint pain users. This has been the start of this graduation project. Firstly, several research sessions with potential users were carried out to learn what the potential users need for joint pain relief and what characteristics of pain relief products they like according to their using experience. It appeared that, joint pain sufferers want to relieve their pain not only at home, but also at daytime when they suffer strong pain during work. A joint pain relief product should be very easy to operate and feels really convenient during light therapy. Generally people do not want to wear it the whole day, but preferably use it during breaks and relaxing time besides work time. They would like to use this kind of product to help them reducing the pain during recovery and speed up the healing process. LEDs can be integrated into textiles. The main challenge for this joint pain relief patch is to find what kind of appearance would convince consumers and which kind of form with relevant interaction would fulfill user's pain relief and ergonomics requirements. Several concepts were generated and evaluated with relevant experts and potential users. Three detailed concepts with rough models were made to gain users feedback on finding meaningful form and interactions. The design named "Enjoint" was designed and further developed according to the results from former studies. "Enjoint" is simple, flexible and intelligent, can be easily operated and provides high mobility for users. Its unisex design is for both male and female: The appearance has professional impression which can convince consumer to purchase, meanwhile it doesn't show unhealthy impression like traditional clinical tools (for example, the bandage). Several optical rubber covers were designed to provide micro-massage effects for improving pain relief effects. Users were especially enthusiastic about the mobility and ease of use of the product. The soft and breathable materials provides for a proper relaxing experience without overheating. Most of the users were convinced by the appearance of the product on its simple, professional and Philips' looking. Users can easily understand and operate the product themselves by the button on patch or APP in smart phone. The participants in user testing showed high interest on the blue lights, they like both how it looks and how it feels. They feel relaxing by the light's effect and think they are getting a professional treatment by the product's professional looking (especially with blue light turned on). The "micro-massage design" works by users unconsciously grasp during therapy, but it's also found it may leave patterns on the skin which arose user's worry. A next step for Philips, in the feasibility study of this concept includes quantitative consumer validation, functional proof of principle, and product's detailing.