The Phase-I environment consists of a smart-crib unit (any Office-certified manufacturer; see Schedule of Approved Vendors, Appendix C), an ambient-stimulus mobile, a soft-toy companion with embedded sensor array, an interactive feeding apparatus, and a wall-mounted display calibrated to the subject's line-of-sight from supine position. Caregivers operating outside a certified Office facility may instead provision an equivalent IoT package under the Home Cradle Equivalence program. The Office does not certify substitute equipment.
All units in the environment report continuously to the Phase-I Regional Aggregator. The subject's behavioral and physiological signals are sampled at 4 Hz from week one and up-sampled to 12 Hz once neural-response coherence has stabilized (typically by month four).
The standard 24-hour cycle rotates four primary stimulus categories. Brand-primer exposure is sequenced into the high-receptivity windows; soothing and motor stimuli occupy the remainder. The Office's longitudinal analysis indicates that stimulus order is materially more determinative of long-run recognition outcomes than stimulus volume.
Fig. 1.2.A — Sample 24-hr stimulus rotation for a subject at month 9
The mobile rotates slow-turning visual primers in soft pastel registers; the feeding apparatus interleaves audio motifs into the suckling rhythm; the wall display projects abstract figural primitives during pre-sleep windows. The full catalog is classified at intake; the table below lists the high-frequency stimulus families authorized for Phase-I subjects.
| family | channel | onset | cycles / day |
|---|---|---|---|
| BP-A · pastel-figural | visual · mobile | wk 1 | 18 |
| BP-B · melodic-motif | audio · feed | wk 1 | 12 |
| BP-C · soft-haptic | tactile · soft toy | wk 3 | 9 |
| BP-D · figural-primitive | visual · wall | wk 8 | 6 |
| BP-E · jingle-fragment | audio · ambient | mo 4 | 8 |
| BP-F · character-form | visual · mobile | mo 6 | 11 |
Tbl. 1.2.A — High-frequency Phase-I primer families (extract)
The Phase-I environment responds in real time to the subject's behavioral signal. A delayed reach toward the mobile elicits brightening of the figural primer at the reached-toward quadrant. A coo during feed-time elicits volume increase of the audio motif. A cry elicits substitution to the soothing register and a logged event for the Regional Aggregator. The subject is thereby trained, during the first six months, that the environment is responsive to engagement and unresponsive to disengagement.
Subjects who fail to develop a stable engagement-response binding by month seven are flagged for review by the Phase-I Affective Calibration Team. Most flagged subjects respond to a single calibration session.
Caregivers occasionally report concern that the brand-primer schedule may interfere with the subject's developmental spontaneity. The Office wishes to confirm that primer exposure is calibrated to fall well below the perceptual attention threshold of the caregiver in routine observation; caregivers will not notice the rotation and the subject will not appear "advertised to." The exposure is ambient and continuous, in the same register as a parent's natural choice of nursery décor — produced according to the Office's longitudinal evidence. The caregiver's individual taste does not enter the rotation.
Caregivers seeking additional reassurance are referred to Pamphlet 4-G (The Algorithmic Nursery: A Parent's Guide).