Working design proposition — 5 October 2026

The project is now moving from broad technology exploration into a specific system architecture: wrist-worn biosensing + contextual interpretation + AI/app interaction + optional bone-conduction audio support. This is a design direction to prototype and evaluate, not a claim that the system can clinically detect sensory overload.

From research question to design loop

The project asks how shared airport accessibility might respond more effectively to the individual and changing sensory needs of autistic adults travelling independently. The emerging answer is not a device that decides what somebody is feeling. It is a user-led support loop that notices physiological change, checks context, asks the traveller whether support would be useful, and then responds only if they choose it.

The central design principle is:

physiological change + movement/context + airport information → cautious interpretation → transparent prompt → user choice → optional support

The loop deliberately separates sensing, interpretation and response. A change in the body is treated as information worth checking, rather than proof of stress, anxiety or sensory overload.

1. Sensing — what the wearable measures

The wrist-worn sensor provides four main inputs:

• EDA — electrodermal activity: changes in skin conductance associated with sympathetic arousal.
• PPG / pulse: optical pulse measurement used to follow pulse-rate change over time.
• HRV — heart-rate variability: variation in the timing between beats, used here as another indicator of changing autonomic state rather than as a direct emotional label.
• Accelerometry: movement and activity information that helps show whether the person is walking, rushing, standing still or otherwise physically active.

These streams should be considered together rather than treated as four independent “answers”.

The system is looking for meaningful within-person change relative to a personal baseline. This is important because wearable data is affected by individual physiology, movement, posture, context, sensor noise and other confounders.

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Design constraint: the wearable does not detect “autistic sensory overload”. It measures physiological and movement signals. The meaning of those signals still has to be interpreted cautiously.

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2. Interpretation — change, not diagnosis

The interpretation stage asks a narrower question:

Has something changed enough from this person’s usual pattern that checking in might be useful?