Playful exercise
A virtual companion turns repeated arm movement into a care task.
04 / Project
Mixed-reality rehabilitation concept
HatchWell
Explores how playful MR interaction, sensor feedback, and a companion app could support engagement during at-home rotator cuff recovery.
- Context
- SCAD Hack iX 2025 · 48 hours
- My Role
- Data Research & Interaction Prototyping Contributor
- Team Outcome
- Functional MR proof of concept
01 / Challenge
Reduce a broad healthcare idea into one testable interaction.
Home rehabilitation is repetitive, difficult to track, and easy to abandon.
The team explored how playful interaction might support engagement during at-home rotator cuff recovery. The focus was motivation and adherence—not diagnosis, clinical validation, or measuring recovery outcomes.
02 / Scope
One movement, one companion, one 48-hour proof of concept.
Early research covered multiple surgery types, pain management, sleep, accountability, AI coaching, and remote therapy. Mentor feedback revealed that the system was becoming unclear. The team narrowed the work to active recovery, one repeatable upper-limb movement, and an MR interaction supported by a companion app.
03 / My contribution
Research validation and supportive audio behavior.
I supported the team by reviewing information used in the final presentation, correcting inaccurate pitch-deck data, and prototyping an audio-feedback system for movement outcomes. I also participated in brainstorming, technical discussion, and limited prototype development.
My contribution
- Data research and presentation validation
- Correction of inaccurate pitch data
- Audio-feedback prototype and interaction logic
- Brainstorming and limited prototype contribution
Team outcome
- Quest mixed-reality prototype
- Sensor-to-Unity concept
- Companion app and pitch deck
- GitHub system documentation
04 / Audio prototype
Encourage success without punishing struggle.
The Unity prototype contains two audio banks: praise after a successful target action and supportive encouragement after a non-target collision. The logic randomly selects from each bank, controls playback volume, and prevents clips from triggering too rapidly.
Movement enters target
→
Check target state
→
Praise or encourage
→
Debounce repeated playback
05 / Team system
Three connected layers supported the concept.
Physical input
An Arduino-based prototype explores sending physical input to Unity.
Longer-term support
Goals, schedules, progress, and therapist communication extend beyond the headset.
Companion-app visuals are shown as team outcomes, not individual design ownership.
06 / Outcome
A functional team prototype with careful medical boundaries.
In 48 hours, the interdisciplinary team produced a working Quest APK, an MR exercise demo, a sensor-to-Unity prototype, a high-fidelity companion app, a pitch deck, and system documentation.
07 / Reflection
The useful lesson was how much to remove.
This was my first hackathon after entering graduate school. The strongest lesson was not how to add more technology, but how to reduce an ambitious idea into one experience that a team could build and demonstrate in 48 hours.