As professionals who work with people with disabilities, we understand that sensory rooms can play a vital role in therapeutic intervention, in addition to being an excellent resource for achieving countless other objectives in other areas of development. It is also apparent that the more interactive these rooms are, the greater the range of opportunities they offer for the user to participate, grow, learn and have fun.

However, although sensory rooms are generally accessible to everyone, there are still a few obstacles that need to be overcome. Until now, one of these significant challenges in any sensory room applied to people who use an eye tracker or eye gaze access systems on their communication device, as they were unable to interact with the sensory room.

Gradually, these limits have been overcome thanks to new technology, which is precisely why Luminea Remote came into being.

Introducing Luminea Remote

Luminea Remote was devised by our innovation and development department to integrate eye gaze devices and other access methods into the sensory room while also helping to make the lighting elements more accessible.

Luminea Remote is a software that allows us to control Luminea lighting devices in a sensory room by means of the Grid 3 and Communicator 5 AAC apps. This way, sensory room users can interact with the lighting devices using their own augmentative communication system and, therefore, can interact with the room using their own personal access method.

Grid 3 is one of the most powerful and comprehensive AAC software packages on the market, and is also one of the best in terms of eye gaze access as it works with active cells. This means that the eye gaze access to its grids is highly optimized and designed to benefit every user.

Often, people who use an eye tracker face a double challenge to communication: on the one hand, they need to work on access methods, while on the other, they also need to develop language with symbols. But, what would happen if we could do this in a more accessible, meaningful environment that provided more coherent stimuli? This would make for a powerful, effective, and most of all motivating tool.

Luminea Remote allows us to download activity grid sets and use them directly in Grid 3. These grids offer a range of activities that encourage interaction and communicative intent, while at the same time allowing us to work on different access methods. This transforms the therapy session into a fun, interesting game.

Activity Grids

Grid 3 allows users to download grid sets containing a wide range of activities:

• We can play with the color of the room, the tube or the lamp through activities that include colorful, visual scenes which, as we know, are a vital resource for people who are learning to communicate.  
• Target practice: In the case of eye gaze access, some users may need to improve their precision. We can begin by basing this activity around a full-screen target and active Grid 3 cells can be used to work on precision all over the screen, with the goal of using a more dynamic and robust communicator and more cells.
  With this type of activity, when the user selects the target correctly, the lighting effect will be triggered, making the result or consequence all the more powerful and motivating. For example, the bubble tube and bubbles, or the room lights, or the Luminea lamp can light up when the target has been “hit”. This activity, which is included in the grid set, also offers the option of making the target smaller, projecting it onto different parts of the screen, and even adding visual distractions if we are working with more advanced users.
• Choice activities: We can suggest choice activities in which the consequence is directly related to what we have selected on the screen. In this case, we will also play with the colors of the different elements in the room, which will also allow us to learn about the importance of controlling our surroundings.

Encouraging choice-making and communication

Luminea Remote promotes choice-making and is ideal for activities in which the user makes a choice that everyone else in the room can see, as it not only allows us all to hear the voice projected through the communicator, but all experience the choice through the changes in the devices in the room. 

Another possible choice activity is to associate colors with other content, displaying objects, or imagining: “What color is a strawberry / grass / the sky?” Of course, this activity is perfect for working on initial concepts in core vocabulary.

In order to strengthen communication skills, the user can also switch the bubble tube on and off using their communicator by simply activating it with their gaze. As a reminder, this type of high-frequency and highly functional vocabulary is best learned when it is associated with consistent consequences and offered in the largest possible range of contexts. Therefore, any settings or situations that are particularly attractive or meaningful to our user will provide great opportunities for learning.

These examples are only a small selection of the possibilities that this tool can offer. In the same grid set, we can also find a section that is for use with the bubble tube, changing the color of the different elements, association work, etc.

As it is an open tool, we can use it to come up with activities based on semantic fields, completing a word or a sentence, for example, and of course, to work on our user’s specific interests, images that are attractive to them, hobbies, family units and so much more.

Luminea Remote opens a world of opportunities for working on numerous different objectives using sensory elements and tools with anyone who uses a communicator with Grid 3. 

Free project design

Click on the banner below if you would like to know more about the benefits of the SHX System or you are interested in finding out what a sensory room adapted to your space, therapeutic objectives and users might look like. If you leave your contact details, one of our consultants will provide you with more specific information and, if you wish, can design a made-to-measure project for your own sensory room free of charge.