Want to see just the final results? Skip to the end (Pitching our Product)⬆️
<aside> <img src="/icons/meeting_red.svg" alt="/icons/meeting_red.svg" width="40px" /> Project 4 is a head-first dive into working with clients and actually creating a product based on their needs. In this project every team is tasked with creating a solution to clients with impairments that we are introduced to early on. The solution can either be solely mechanical, software or a mixture of both. The entire creative process is left up to the students.
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<aside> <img src="/icons/light-bulb_red.svg" alt="/icons/light-bulb_red.svg" width="40px" /> For my batch of classmates we were introduced to are two elderly clients with Type 1 Diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis. The client with type 1 diabetes is mainly troubled by a visual impairment where they’re almost fully blind in both eyes. The client with Multiple Sclerosis is impaired with muscle weakness and partial paralysis in their legs and also struggles with fine motor function and spends most of their day in a wheelchair. We could choose to develop a solution for one or both clients.
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Figure 1 : Team Picture with Initial Concepts
<aside> 1️⃣ Frame a design problem to the clients needs, objectives, functions, constraints and metrics. Explore the design space.
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<aside> 2️⃣ Follow an iterative design process, going through prototype fabrication, validation, and incorporating feedback through design reviews.
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<aside> 3️⃣ Communicate design to non-team members and use feedback to validate or refine the design.
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<aside> 4️⃣ Test and Finalize Design.
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<aside> 5️⃣ Present the final design and create professional engineering report describing process and outcome to a client.
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In this project I was given the role of coordinator, as part of my responsibilities I had to:
Coordinate all team meetings, in-person and online
Keep a record of all meetings and discussions, both in-person and online
Be the note-taker during scheduled weekly progress meetings in an agenda
Complete and submit a logbook of additional meetings and discussions
Download my weekly agendas here 👉
mon43_P4_AgendaMeetingMinutes.docx
Download my logbook of additional meetings here 👉
P4_AdditionalLogbookOfMeetings.docx
At the start of the project we were given two opportunities to take notes and identify the needs of the clients. We decided to focus on the client with the visual impairment because all the solutions we could think of seemed to be unique and not available in the market today. Here is our list of objectives that we think our solution should accomplish:
| Objective | Rationale |
|---|---|
| 1. Should be tactile and have some sort of feedback | Client cannot see very well, so when the design acknowledges that the client has used a function it would be helpful for him to navigate the design |
| 2. Should be cost-effective | Client may break the product so being able to reproduce the design should be cheap and easy |
| 3. Should be easy to use | Since client cannot see very well, being able to see the overall design will be hard so the design should have minimal buttons and interactions |
| 4. Should be durable | Since client cannot see, he may drop the device frequently or damage it during frequent everyday use. |
| 5. Should be lightweight | To help client with overall maneuverability and help ensure no discomfort with everyday carry. In other words, not a bothersome weight on the client. |
After this step, between my teammates we split up research topics to learn more about before we start designing our prototype. My topic was computer vision and object recognition.
Download my research here 👉
gopalv1_P4_ResearchAssignment.pdf
In order start developing ideas and exploring the design space we also created a functional analysis of the direction we wanted to head in. Here is the shorter analysis table:
| Function | Means | Means | Means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identify Visual Features | Camera sensor with text recognition software | Colour Sensor to identify colour | Infrared sensor to identify distance |
| Activate Device | Button | Switch | Motion / Gestures |
| Communicate to User | Speakers / audio feedback | LED array to light up object | Vibration / Haptics |
Each of our initial concepts functions were to recognize something from the environment, whether it be the color or the object itself, and relay that information back to the client through non-visual means. Here are some of the initial concept sketches we had:
After a couple design reviews we had good feedback from our upper-year students:
<aside> <img src="/icons/thought-alert_purple.svg" alt="/icons/thought-alert_purple.svg" width="40px" /> During our design review with some upper year students we actually got a new idea (the concept sketch is above). In collaboration with them we went through our various designs: the glasses, a pen, a watch and a glucose meter add-on. We realized that our previous designs of watches and glasses were not practical due to discomfort and difficulty in implementation. They suggested that we simplify the concepts and brought up the idea of transforming the design to a pendant that can be attached to a keychain, or necklace that the user can wear. We then opted for a compact pendant that will only have a color sensor and a speaker to ensure ease of use, portability, and simplicity after some consideration and decision matrices.
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Once the parts came I started coding and wiring the final product right away. In order to implement the features we want there were several challenges that I needed to tackle:
The final step in our project was to create pitch presentation and pitch our product to the instructional team. Overall the presentation went well. You can look at the presentation and demo video here…