Dex

TLDR

We hacked into the Macbook's sensors to help bring a tangible and physical occupational therapy exercise experience for kids at home.

Dex Brings Occupational Therapy To Your Child's Home

Meet Harry, a grade three student who’s teacher’s think his dexterity skills are well below average. Even with weekly OT sessions, Harry faces 6 days without active support. And not to mention, getting the materials required for these exercises can be expensive and running them can be tiresome for busy parents.

This is why we built Dex, an occupational therapy tool that uses sensors built into MacBooks to make guided motor-skill exercises more accessible and engaging at home.

The Science

Dex presents a short, fun, and daily “Wordle-Like” experience to practice common OT exercises at home. We took common Occupational Therapy exercises and mapped them to physical aspects of the macbook.

The Pincer Grasp

• Strengthening Finger Grip Using the Laptop Hinge.

Developing Hand Strength

• Applying a varying amount of pressure to the trackpad.

Coordination + Motor Planning

• Understanding how spatial movement works with rotating the laptop.

Annunciation Development

• Blowing into the mic of the laptop working mouth muscles.

We then take these interactions and create daily stories around them to keep Harry’s attention throughout. And of course, these lessons are all replayable.

Built With

• claude
• cursor
• figma
• swift