Autistic children
Especially school-age children navigating unfamiliar or high-stimulus environments.
Wearable sensory regulation / Third-semester project 02
Aura
A steady point
in a loud world.
A discreet tactile-proprioceptive glove designed to offer a predictable sensory anchor during public overwhelm.
00 / Context
Public spaces
do not pause.
Metros, markets, schools and airports layer sound, movement, flickering light, physical contact and unpredictability. For some autistic people, the nervous system can struggle to filter that incoming information.
Noise
Announcements
Flicker
Movement
Touch
Crowds
Too much,
all at once.
all at once.
ChaosAnchorRhythm
Regulation is not about erasing every stimulus. It is about offering the nervous system something strong, safe and predictable to return to.
01 / Research
Designing for neurodivergence
Listening before
drawing.
The project began with research into sensory processing across autism, ADHD, AuDHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, sensory processing differences and auditory processing differences. A field visit to a specialist school in Delhi grounded that research in everyday realities.
The people around the experience
Therapists & educators
People who recognise patterns, support regulation and understand individual sensory preferences.
Parents & caregivers
People seeking portable, respectful support without drawing unwanted attention.
Sensory overload can look different for every person
When filtering becomes difficult, the nervous system may move into fight, flight, freeze or shutdown.
- 01Anxiety or panic
- 02An urge to escape
- 03Shutdown or meltdown
- 04Repetitive stimming
The opportunity
How might a product help someone find calm inside a high-stimulus public environment?
The brief called for something wearable, discreet, portable and immediately available—without depending on a screen, a separate room or another person.
02 / Process
Many exits.
One direction.
Early ideas explored narrowing vision, enclosing the head, creating a handheld sensory surface and building a temporary escape space. The glove became the turning point: support could travel with the body and stay within reach.
The decision filter
ImmediateAvailable at the first signs of overwhelm
TactileActive input through pressure, touch and motion
DiscreetA wearable form that does not announce its purpose
Real-worldMade for movement, public space and everyday routines
Prototype development
The hand
answered back.
Flat studies became wrapped forms. Ridges were softened, openings were enlarged and the palm surface was tested through several rolling modules. Each prototype moved the concept closer to something the hand could naturally live with.
A vocabulary of texture
Soothing is
specific.
Texture was treated as an interaction, not decoration. The studies compared how micro-ridges, sine waves, asymmetric bumps and dot grids could create different rhythms as the palm modules rolled together.
The material rule
Controlled, rounded and low-profile.
Sharp knurls, high ridges and rough plastic-only surfaces risk becoming another source of irritation. The final direction favoured soft TPU or silicone, rounded transitions and predictable resistance.
03 / Product
Introducing Aura
Calm,
within reach.
Aura is worn across the palm and back of the hand, leaving the fingers free. It places two distinct tactile languages exactly where the opposite hand can find them.
Wavy outer texture
A quiet, discreet surface with broad flowing ridges for rubbing, tracing and pressure.
Rolling micro-spheres
Rubbing both palms together rolls multiple textured spheres, translating a familiar hand motion into soft tactile pulses.
Open-hand freedom
The fingerless geometry keeps grip and hand movement available for everyday use.
How the interaction works
Move.
Feel.
Repeat.
Rubbing both palms together rolls multiple textured spheres across Aura's palm surface. Most of the spheres move in a shared rhythm, creating a soft field of repeated tactile pulses that the user can initiate and control.
- 01Bring both palms together.
- 02Rub the palms to roll multiple spheres.
- 03The spheres move together in a steady rhythm.
A rhythm you control.
In the environment it was designed for
“The product does not ask the world to become quiet. It gives the hand a quiet language of its own.”
04 / Reflection
What this project changed for me
Designing support
without taking away agency.
Aura became more than a product-form exercise. It asked how a sensory tool can feel personal rather than medical, visible without feeling exposing, and supportive without deciding for the person using it.
The most important outcome is not the glove alone. It is the principle behind it: design can create a small pocket of control inside an environment that cannot be controlled.
- Project
- Third-semester Design Project 02
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Institution
- School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi
- Designer
- Bhavook Singh / ID 472
- Scope
- Research, ideation, prototyping, form and interaction design
Aura is an academic design concept for sensory self-regulation. It is not presented as a medical device, therapy or universal solution; sensory preferences and support needs differ from person to person.