What is Somia Niu? Calm booths for children's emotional regulation

Somia™ Niu are the autonomous calm booths developed by yeshcube for the public and semi-public spaces used by children and their families. They combine a low-stimulation physical environment with experiences guided by sound and voice, with no screens inside, and they run without staff: the family opens them from a phone with a QR code. These emotional regulation booths for children in public spaces are the way into Niu, the line of the ecosystem devoted to childhood and family, and they connect with the family application, with Somia Data and with Somia Atlas.

The ERL scale (Evidence Readiness Level) measures the evidence maturity of a solution across six levels, from the initial hypothesis (ERL-0) to consolidated impact (ERL-5).

The problem: somewhere to stop when the setting overwhelms

Shopping centers, airports, hospitals, cultural venues and family destinations concentrate noise, movement, waiting, changes of routine and visual stimulation. Those conditions make staying difficult for some children and their families, above all when sensory or emotional overload sets in.

Four concrete difficulties follow from that. The first is finding somewhere nearby that lowers the stimulation for a while. The second is having an understandable experience that helps begin the pause once talking no longer works. The third is keeping the adult inside the process and leaving the exit always available. The fourth is carrying what those minutes practice into everyday life.

The design principle that answers all four is a brief, predictable and supervised space that combines control of the surroundings, a structured experience and voluntary continuity outside the booth.

Design requirements

Five requirements follow from that problem, and they govern the design of Somia Niu:

• Low stimulation: the space reduces exposure to noise, movement, visual stimuli and the pressure of the setting.
• Predictable interaction: the experiences use brief pathways, simple instructions and understandable endings.
• Adult supervision: the responsible person keeps control of access, of the session and of the exit.
• Family continuity: what the booth practices is taken up again voluntarily at home.
• Proportionate privacy: data collection is limited to operating, improving and evaluating the service.

Architecture: the booth, family continuity and the Somia core

Somia’s modular character separates what the core provides from what each product resolves. In that division, Somia Niu is the physical environment and its experience: isolation from outside noise, regulated lighting, the sound system, access through a QR code and the child’s interaction through audio and voice.

The core provides the experience orchestration, the approved content, the safety rules and the data governance. Artificial intelligence organizes the pathway and adapts elements within boundaries set in advance, with clinical interpretation and diagnosis outside its function.

The family application sustains practice at home with adapted experiences, brief routines and guidance for whoever cares for the child. Somia Data organizes the aggregated indicators of the service and Somia Atlas locates the booths once a network of sites exists.

How a session works

The session takes place under the responsibility of an adult, who opens the booth from a phone with the QR code and chooses the pathway the moment calls for. The system explains in a few words what is going to happen.

The experience rests on soundscapes, guided breathing, music, voice narration and simple prompts to pause. During overload, the pathway reduces decisions and holds a stable sequence. In preventive use, it serves to practice breathing, recognizing the body’s signals, sensory rest or how to say what is needed.

The child stops the session and leaves whenever they want, the adult keeps the pause and the closing, and the booth keeps an accessible exit. At the end, the system offers a brief transition back outside and, if the family wants it, the continuation at home.

Experiences and continuity: the booth, the family and the network

The experiences address two contexts. The first arises when a child needs to step away from the setting for a while and bring the activation down. The second is preventive practice of abilities that later work in any situation, and that is where most of the support happens: the booth is the most visible product, and continued use takes place at home.

The content works on recognizing the signals of overload, identifying the moment to stop, learning simple strategies and expressing what is needed. For the family it sustains a more structured response and shared routines. These are design objectives, and their effect is measured in the validation the product still has ahead of it.

A family completes a session in the booth without activating memories or personal continuity. Somia Data gathers the aggregated indicators of the service — uses, duration, time of day, completion, technical availability and reported usefulness — and host sites receive the aggregated information that suits their function.

Data and privacy

Children and their families use the booth with data collection that is limited, understandable and tied to authorized purposes. Operation needs the session record, technical availability, duration, completion and voluntary continuity; personalization memories are enabled from the family application and voluntarily.

Processing is governed by the GDPR and the Spanish LOPDGDD, with Yeshcube Tech, SL as data controller. The applicable framework is published in the Somia privacy policy and in the AI transparency commitment. The product’s own regime — which personal data and operational events are retained, on what legal basis, for how long, what is discarded when the session closes and how consent and the representation of a minor are handled — will be declared with its technical and legal specification.

Artificial intelligence models read a response incompletely or choose an unsuitable pathway. That is why experiences for children use approved content, restricted margins for adaptation and adult supervision.

Evidence and validation status

Somia Niu holds level ERL-0, initial hypothesis. The research and the results obtained with booths for adults support shared principles — low-stimulation environments, guided sound experiences and the reduction of stimuli — and that evidence serves as background for formulating Niu and designing its proof of concept.

What the evidence with adults does not establish are the variables introduced by the application with children:

• the child population and the family’s participation;
• use during a situation of overload;
• adult supervision and safety in a public space;
• content, language and interaction adapted to a child;
• sensory and cognitive accessibility;
• the risk of using the booth as isolation, custody or a disciplinary measure;
• continuity through the family application;
• operation in shopping centers, airports, hospitals and other settings.

Reaching level ERL-1 (proof of concept) requires at least a prototype or a functional Niu experience evaluated with children and families in a defined context. It will be declared once that evidence is available.

Still to be determined are the dimensions, the capacity, the materials, the ventilation, the acoustics, the cleaning, the accessibility and the signage of the booth, together with the model for installation, operation and maintenance. Each one is published with the specification that settles it. Commercial transfer is conditioned by the hub’s general rule, which requires at least ERL-3 to transfer any solution.

What it is for and what is left out

Somia Niu is intended for shopping centers, airports, hospitals, cultural venues, family destinations and other public or semi-public settings, during a situation of overload or as a space for preventive practice.

The product offers preventive, educational and wellbeing support. It does not make diagnoses, psychological assessments or clinical interventions, it does not automatically interpret a child’s emotions, it does not guarantee that episodes of dysregulation will disappear and it does not replace professional care.

Left out of its use are custody, childcare, restraint, punishment and disciplinary isolation: the adult remains part of the process and keeps responsibility for the child.

Somia Niu takes the place of the emotional accessibility infrastructure for childhood in the ecosystem, with the family application as its continuity. Its certification under Somia™ Within is conditioned on technical integration. The details of the system behind it are on the Somia site.