MIND technology

[wendytalarico]

The article on the MIND Institute was wonderful.
I want to add two important components of that project: technology and acoustics. Both are part of the architecture of the space.

Shen Milsom & Wilke's role at MIND was to efficiently record, archive, and disseminate patient information within and outside the institute.

Observing a patient's behavior and interaction with family members and doctors is key to understanding the effectiveness of treatments for autism. Comparing current and past behavior over months and years helps researchers find linkages among environmental and other factors believed to be triggers.

Our scope included the creation of a large multimedia network for recording and sharing patient sessions. Young people are examined in one of 19 treatment rooms, each of which is equipped with two discretely placed video cameras and microphones to record the interaction between patients and clinicians.

An observation room, adjacent to each treatment room, provides a place where researchers or family members can witness interactions between patient and doctor. These rooms contain a large-screen video display that doubles as a control center. Using touch-screen commands, observers can control the cameras and sound recording equipment in the treatment room. They can record the sessions and also replay past sessions using a DVD player installed in the room.

If no one is available to man the observation room controls, sessions may still be recorded from a central editing suite. The resulting footage may be edited here for quality, length, sound, and other criteria.

Recorded sessions may also be archived in various formats to a network storage system. Using a central file server, these recordings may be disseminated throughout the MIND network, or even across the Internet if researchers or family members are in other parts of the world.

Additionally, any of the examination room activities may be watched from anywhere else in the facility, if desired. A group of up to 400 people can gather in the conference room and observe a live session. They can even suggest that the physician ask specific questions of the patient, or direct the physician in his examination. This is done via microphones in the conference room and an unobtrusive earpiece worn by the doctor.

Autistic children can be noisy. To maintain an air of calm within the institute, Shen Milsom & Wilke helped specify sound-isolation construction between the treatment, conference, and observation rooms as well as the sound-absorbing treatment to help quiet occupant noise.

Equally, important, Shen Milsom & Wilke worked with the mechanical engineer to quell noise from the mechanical equipment and air-distribution systems. This optimizes the quality of the widespread audio recording that takes place in the facility.

As you can see, these are Please let me know if I can present these online, perhaps in the forum space or elsewhere.