Stress (and Anxieties) complaints tend to be more pervasive in today’s life. Reducing levels of stress is becoming of more importance for mental wellbeing. The crossover between stress and ever more present wearable technology show such devices would be promising. Deep Pressure Touch (PDT), pressure on the body, is known for its therapeutic calming effect. Derived from this the wearable device ‘Premo’ has been developed and its effectiveness of ability to reduce stress levels and on task performance-related stress. A tailored system had to be designed because of the lack of existing adaptive DPT systems and the novel inclusion of the rhythm instead of continuous pressure.

Feedback on the project: To be able to do what Mark did he had to take the role of not only a researcher, but also a maker, designer, prototyper and artist and in my opinion he took each of these roles seriously and really achieved something in each of these aspects of the project. Behind almost each final decision is a thorough investigation, even to the point of user-testing different types of hugs! The final product is not just a thesis, but also a working prototype for Premo, a design plan that other DIY enthusiasts can follow to make their own and a whole series of intermediate products that use other techniques that have been attempted (like motors instead of air etc).

• Premo is my graduation project which was praised with a 9.
• My master thesis, ‘Calming pressure: a study through design on stress reduction by deep pressure touch contractions through wearable technology’, can be found here.
• More information and additional files can be found on markdereijer.nl/premo.
• Or see the visual end-presentation to get an impression of the project.