It was a rather special ceremony which took place a few days ago at the 3rd hussar regiment of Metz (Moselle): the donation of five Calinange sensory boxes, designed by Aurore Saintigny, 48 years old.
“When their parent is absent, it allows children to feel their presence near them,” summarizes this engineer by training.
Before leaving for an operation, the soldier records his voice, his smell and his heartbeat so that the tool can broadcast it after his departure, and thus accompany the child.
The pension fund for veterans of Lorraine and Champagne Ardenne financed the 3,500 euros of this sponsorship operation.
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The idea for Calinange was born in 2017, in the corridors of children's hospitals.
Aurore Saintigny wanted to allow them to maintain daily sensory contact with their loved ones, during the first months, or even the first years.
Matured in a start-up incubator in Lorraine, the technological equipment has been the subject of a cutting-edge design that combines electronics and algorithms.
He received support from the hospital community, including the Cochin hospital in Paris (14th century).
More than 200 of these devices, available in different forms (for premature or full-term babies, for children over three years old with certain disorders, etc.) were sold to hospitals and healthcare establishments, for 700 to 1,100 euros.
Not to be confused with a dictaphone, “the device was designed so that it only sends back favorable sensations, erasing possible feelings of stress during recordings,” emphasizes the designer.
He is not there to replace the parent.
It allows the link to be extended in the event of a constrained absence.
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