Smart Baby Pillows Prevent Flat Head Syndrome

The innovative smart baby pillow can correct babies’ sleeping posture and develop a symmetrical skull shape, preventing flat head syndrome.

Mild cases of flat head syndrome can be prevented by smart baby pillows developed Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology. Constant pressure on a particular part of babies’ malleable skulls can lead to positional flattening or molding of the head. This innovative device can prevent the babies from developing an asymmetrical skull shape.

The device has also recently won a gold award at the 'Science and Technology-based Business Idea Contest', jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Commercializations Promotion Agency for R&D Outcomes, and the Asan Nanum Foundation. The winning team consists of the following members: Tae Hun Chung and Dong-Cheol Lim in the School of Materials Science and Engineering and HyeWon Cho in the School of Life Sciences.

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‘Smart baby pillows can relax mothers from changing the babies’ positions by monitoring the newborn's head in real time.’

Flat head syndrome is the term, given when a child's head is asymmetrical and flattened on one side more than the other. Although this does not harm brain development nor cause any lasting appearance problems, simple practices, like placing them in different positions over the course of each day, can easily prevent a baby from developing an asymmetrical skull shape.

"We came up with the idea to help new parents who are in drastic need of sleep," the students claim. "We wanted to help them relax and rest at least when their babies are asleep."

The new smart baby pillow is designed to help induce the correct sleeping posture, thereby preventing babies from developing flat head syndrome. This new device features an embedded air volume control system, as well as the image-based soft tactile sensor, developed by the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH). Besides, this sensor was one of ten technologies presented in the competition, previously.

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"A soft tactile sensor has been applied to monitor the position of a newborn's head in real time," says Tae Hun Chung in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. "We have also added a system that automatically controls the volume of air in the pillow for a perfectly symmetrical skull. This saves the trouble of attempting to change a newborn's head in different positions every 1 to 2 hours."

The team plans to commercialize the product and later expand into the medical device market. The engineers behind this smart baby pillow expect that their product will be in great demand for both medical and cosmetic aspects, as it can drastically reduce the risk of cot death, as well as unusual facial asymmetry. By securing a financial aid from the Commercializations Promotion Agency for R&D Outcomes, they plans to build a prototype in the first half of this year.