Nuppi is a navigation system specifically designed for children to help practice important routes following a relocation
Nuppi is a portable navigation system designed for children who, typically following a relocation, have to (re)learn the routes to locations such as schools, shops, and friends. Nuppi works based on a breadcrumb concept that allows parents to manually add trusted routes one after another by actually walking the routes together with their child(ren).
Parents can train Nuppi with safe or well-practiced routes, stored locally with a desired offset (creating a network of geofenced routes). This eases the period between parents accompanying their child(ren) and letting them travel alone.
If children do get lost, Nuppi offers two options. First, the Nuppi can guide the child home through instructions given by the Tamagotchi-like dog character on the device. Second, children can activate the emergency function that automatically sends the coordinates of Nuppi to their parents. Parents wear a small key change that receives the coordinated, so the child can easily be located.
The idea for Nuppi was born from a series of focus groups and interviews with parents and caregivers of children who were displaced by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. After the initial development phase, a working prototype of Nuppi was created and underwent usability testing in both the Netherlands and Japan. This testing involved observing and gathering feedback from children and their caregivers to assess how well the prototype functioned and whether it achieved its intended goal.
Nuppi is specifically designed for the context of forced displacement following a disaster. Therefore, it features several context-relevant features such as an emergency call option and a 4km radio range that can automatically send a distress signal to emergency services, even in case of cellular and power outages. Multiple Nuppis can work together to set up a mesh network, which increases coverage. Furthermore, due to the solar cell on the front of the Nuppi it will never run out of power.
Developed with
- This was a solo project
Responsible for
- Entire design and development, including:
- Conceptualizing opportunities and producing prototypes.
- Create personas and customer journey maps.
- 3D CAD modeling and 3D Printing.
- Electronic circuit design, PCB Design, and component placement.
- Designing and programming embedded software.
- Evaluating prototypes and formulating points for further improvement.
Awarded with:
- Best TU/e ID graduation project of 2013
