Beegeebee is a blood glucose monitoring system for children and parents.
Beegeebee (short for “blood glucose buddy”) starts with a continuous blood glucose sensor attached to the child’s torso. The sensor sends real-time information to the buddy watch the child wears. The face of the watch indicates blood glucose levels in an approachable and easy to learn way, with colors that go from cool (low blood glucose levels) to warm (high blood glucose levels). It beeps or vibrates to indicate the need for an insulin shot or snack. Finally, the wristwatch relays data to a smartphone app for the parent or caregiver to keep track of their child’s diabetes management.
Enabling a child to take ownership of their diabetes care is important. We designed the beegeebee to facilitate this empowerment through personalization of the buddy watch. The watch has a character and personality uniquely tied to a variety of interchangeable faceplates that can easily change with the child’s moods or trends at school.
Created for Carla Diana‘s Smart Objects course, the final deliverables included a product mockup, a prototype of the app, and a working program using Arduino and Processing to simulate the different states of the watch. This project was featured in artinfo.com’s Innovators in Design series.
