Materials: Bioplastic & air
Functions: Intelligent patient support, repositioning & massaging
Application: As bedding in medical contexts
We present… the »Smart Mattress«! This speculative idea, crafted by two workshop participants, was inspired by soft robotics applications that are already being researched today.
The »Smart Mattress« is an air-controlled mattress that could make life more comfortable for patients and caregivers in the future. It consists of a large number of bioplastic slats. These slats are individually controllable and can be inflated with different amounts of air, allowing the »Smart Mattress« to take on many different shapes. Depending on the patient’s needs, the »Smart Mattress« can support, reposition, and even massage.
»In 2050, we will all be quite old and may need gentle movement. The ›Smart Mattress‹ can turn a person over or allow them to adopt an angle so that they can lie in a more upright position. It also has sensors underneath, which are specially designed for the health care sector. So It will know – okay, there’s a leg fracture, so you need to keep the leg still from time to time, but the patient still needs to be repositioned, for example. The mattress knows all this. That’s why it’s called the ›Smart Mattress‹.«