Avoiding Crisis Moments: This Developer Created an AI App to Predict Sensory Overload

During a handicap assistance service at the airport, a badge around her neck, Jennifer Opal visibly committed that she had an invisible handicap. When the situation became overwhelming, Opal experienced what it calls an “autistic fusion” and the staff around it did not know what to do.

“They just looked at me as if something was wrong,” said Opal. “I could not communicate with them that I needed help. But they could not identify either that I needed help. Even with me wearing a lanyard and a badge to say that I have invisible handicaps … It didn’t help.”

Although frustrated at that time, she transformed the incident into inspiration to build what she, and others who experienced similar things, needed: individualized sensory support for neurodivergent humans.

Our conversation started in the evening during a Google meeting call. Opal, a software developer based in the award-winning United Kingdom and defender of neurodiversity, spoke to me about Ssensimm, a free application of health technology fueled by the AI ​​that it has created. Incorporating with your Apple Watch, Oura Ring or Ultrahuman Ring, Ssensimm is designed to prevent sensory overload in neurodivergent individuals – before it leads to collapses.

Why was Ssensimm created?

Opal was at the end of the twenty when it was diagnosed with neurodivergence – originally, ADHD. It was only when she started taking ADHD medication that her autistic features began to show. However, she remembers having lived a lot of mergers before that, similar to what happened in the airport handicap assistance service.

In 2013, the DSM -5 – Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders – was updated to consider a double diagnosis of autism and ADHD. Research on the appearance of autism and ADHD in an adult is underway, and the way in which neurodivergent features appear varies according to the individual.

This limited search, mixed with accessibility barriers that can prevent someone from being tested for ADHD and autism, are large reasons why OPAL has been inspired to create Ssensimm: to fill a gap in patient care.

“I want it to be the application on which our community can depend as a neurodivergenous persons, in particular those who also await diagnosis and do not have access to support without diagnosis,” explains Opal.

Ssensimm was originally the personal OPAL automatic learning project. But when she shared the prototype with her LinkedIn community, it generated 50,000 views, the members of the community who try the hand to find out if it would become an application.

Nearly 5,000 people have signed up for the application’s waiting list over three weeks. It was at this point that she realized that her experience was much more common than she thought was initially, and she started working on construction.

How does Ssensimm use AI?

Ssensimmmm collects the real -time sensory entries of your laptop, which contains sensors to monitor and follow your health. This allows Ssensimm to identify environmental factors such as noise levels and location – and personal data such as fatigue and user models – to predict potential sensory challenges for someone and intervene before a crisis occurs by suggesting personalized adaptation strategies.

“It actually helps you to plan your day and travel routes with your sensory needs in mind, like suggesting the quieter coffee when your system is already stressed, or remembering to take the less short path at home. In addition, it examines how your cycle affects things if you lie,” explains Opal in a tiktok. “(IT) can even send a message to your confidence if you have trouble.”

The only tools similar to the Opal saw on the market require “a lot of manual contribution, which also takes a lot of cognitive load” or was very “reactive”. She tells me that she wanted Ssensimm to be built to know you, for you.

“We want to provide support, but we don’t want it to be something where we are telling them exactly what to do,” said Opal. “We help provide them with support so that we can still … sail in the world in which we live.”

Then, Ssensimm fits into Claude AI for its ability to analyze the models and predict sensory challenges while supporting an adaptive interface. (The application will be able to adjust dynamically according to your current sensory capacity.) Consequently, by Ssensimm recognizing the models, it can predict potential sensory challenges before they occur.

Claude AI also provides a folding system. If you lose a connection, the application can always provide support using pre-formulated recommendations until it reconnects to the network, while retaining all the data stored locally for confidentiality. It was an important part of the Opal process because it built something so personal for someone’s daily ability to work.

“The architecture we use for Ssensimm is local architecture – it is recorded on user devices,” explains Opal. “I wanted it to be an application in which our community can have confidence. We do not monetize it, we do not sell it at all. We have the right of intimacy, and I just want my community to feel safe.”

Who should use Ssensimm?

I had several flashbacks because Opal shared his experiences with me. The one who also occurred publicly at an airport and, more precisely, in response to the multitude of drugs, I was brought in navigating during a new city and a new work. (It is after my test results came back that I was “a little ADHD”, but nothing more, despite my hindsight that my nervous system was extremely deregulated.)

All this to say that between the growing online community of Ssenimt, my own experiences and Opal’s vision for what it has built, I have no doubt that there are many people who could use SensSimm – especially if you try to understand the signs and signals of a merger Before They occur.

The only means of deterrence is that Ssensimm is currently available only via Apple Watch, with the Ssensory application in iOS – a choice made for ease of implementation and innovation, because the majority of pre -launched users questioned had an Apple Watch. However, Opal says that there can be other ways in the future for Ssensimm to reach more people via an application or without the need for a laptop.

“I really want people to trust me, can build something that will really help them and make a positive difference in their lives.” Opal says.

I had made the mistake of planning a call in a different time zone, hours in advance for Opal. It is now almost 11 p.m. where it is located, the glow of a tram blocking parts of its screen.

The latest moments of our conversation consisted in reflecting OPAL on the result of the Ssensimm online put online, with humans from all different backgrounds – some diagnosed, some non – sharing their own stories and difficulties that Ssensimm could finally help, especially when it did not necessarily believe it was something that was necessary.

“What I learned is that when you live something and you try to create a solution for this, you will be surprised to see how foreigners on the Internet can come and validate what you are going through,” she adds.

When it comes to obtaining the care you need, validation – with intention – may be a powerful affirmative experience.

You can register for early access to Ssensimm on its website. The planned launch of the application is at the end of 2025.