Yoon prototyped a system called the Cacophony Mapper, which tracks sound stimuli and nurses’ stress levels to study and improve the sound environment in an intensive care unit.
This project addresses the problem of noise fatigue experienced by ICU nurses. This problem is caused by exposure to excessive noise over a long period of time. It can lead to auditory numbness, stress, low job satisfaction and poor job performance. The aim of this project is to create a system that can be used to investigate the causes of noise fatigue in medical staff and to develop interventions to improve the sound environment in the ICU.
Yoon focused on how to accurately capture the sound stimuli and stress levels of nurses from their perspective. In this way, the project can serve as a research tool for further design interventions to improve the sound environment in the ICU. Nurses were interviewed and observed in the ICU. Machine learning was used to classify sounds in the ICU, FitBit trackers were used to assess objective stress levels, and emotion reports were used as a subjective stress assessment tool.
This project resulted in the development of a prototype system called the Cacophony Mapper, which is designed to help improve the sound environment in the ICU by accurately capturing sound stimuli and stress level data from the nurses’ perspective. The system was found to be feasible and showed potential for further development and implementation in a medical environment.
