'rumbl'
Product Overview
‘Rumbl’ is a wearable ‘wellness device’ that tracks and monitors your gut’s activity continuously throughout the day by listening to the users abdominal acoustics, and uses signal processing/machine learning to relay insightful information about your gut’s health.‘Rumbl’ helps build a sustainable lifestyle through gut health in an informative, motivational and accessible way through the device and complementary app. This product aims to change the way we as a society look at gut health, and show that good gut health should be thought about and encouraged by all, as it can help you become your best, healthiest self.
Problem Area
‘Gut health and nutrition is a very topical subject as researchers are increasingly discovering and recognizing that other organ systems are influenced by the gut environment.’ We are all affected by bad gut health or bad eating habits at some point in our lives and we may not even realize it. Our microbiome aids in food digestion, influences your mood and energy levels, and protects you against harmful organisms. The neglection of gut health can lead to very serious repercussions such as developing diabetes, obesity, chronic illnesses, Alzheimer's disease, depression, anxiety and cancer.
Interviews & Focus Groups
Primary research was focused on interviews and focus groups to collect the data needed for better insights into certain areas founded in the secondary research. This research helped gather first hand insights from professionals and the general public. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, interviews and focus groups had to be conducted over voice or video call.
Insights
Insights were developed by analyzing research and findings to extract interesting and important information. They helped push the project forward into a new area of research which narrowed the projects objective.
Research
Identifying key pain points and insights informed a variety of concepts and lead to further avenues of research for the development of this project.
Abdominal Sounds was identified as a non-intrusive method to monitor, track and extract useful information about your gut's activity and condition. Important features from the sounds are loudness, frequency, tone, quality and regularity. Sounds can be simplified into 4 categories:
The product is worn around your abdomen where the two microphones sit either sides of your belly button. The device listens/records bowel sounds so you can visually see changes or patterns with your gut’s activity, as well as receive an easily digestible breakdown of information and features. This information and data can be found through the complementary app. The app is also a place where the user can manually document personal information such as their daily meals, well-being, abdominal pain etc.
Prototyping
The main aim of the design was for it to be functional, discreet under clothing, comfortable for the user and a sleek finish. Initial low fidelity prototyping and sketch models were made with cardboard and other disassembled household objects e.g. Bluetooth speakers, headphones, packaging and clothing. This was then followed by mid-fidelity prototype and eventually to the final 'look' like model through user testing and feedback.
Final Design
This wearable was designed for easy mass production with low cost materials and manufacturing processes. The design is discreet, comfortable and sleek for the user to wear under clothing for long periods of time, with options of customisation through different colour ways. The main electronic casing and belt assembly are detachable, which allows for easy washing of the fabric and interaction with main casing. The belt is also available in 3 sizes, with an added adjustable mechanism to fit a wide variety of body shapes, and the main electronic casing has flexible properties to curve to the shape of the user.
The App
The complementary app is the main communication between the user and the device's information. It is where the user can read their gut sound analytics, listen and visually compare their guts sounds to other days to learn about their own unique gut and what/how it responds to certain things. It also gives them the opportunity to manually log in information for back-up history for the user to relate back to and also improves the apps algorithm through machine-learning. The app also serves as a safe space for the user and encourages conversation surrounding the ‘gut’.
