Category: Final Projects

Our team took a different path compared with other teams. At the beginning of the semester, we were focusing on inventing a glove for people with disabilities to eat so that they can eat with comfort and independently. However, we changed our idea after the pre-makerathon event. During the event, we met John, one of the mentors for the course, and we decided to change our idea after hearing his personal story. We learned that there hasn’t been a watch that is accessible for him in the market: most watches require the whole hand to put on and take off. Even with simpler design such as a watch with magnet wrap, those can easily interfered with the manual wheelchair he was using. As a result, he had to abandon using the watch. However, if possible, he really wants to be able to wear a watch. After hearing his story, our team wanted to focus on this opportunity to invent a watch wrap that is accessible for people with limited pinching mobility.

We think the need for such an accessible device is huge. This type of design would enable people with limited pinching mobility to be able to wear a watch with just one finger. Specifically, we found that this design would benefit people with Charcot-Marie-Tooth. In our research, we realized that Charcot-Marie-Tooth is the most common inherited disorder that involves the peripheral nerves. In the United States along, it is estimated that 150,000 people have such disorder. On a global scale, 1 in 3,300 people would have such disorder. One symptom for people who have Charcot-Marie-Tooth is that they may develop weakness in their hands. This makes daily tasks such as writing and fastening buttons difficult. Similarly, wearing a watch independently is hard for them as well.

We have investigated the current market and deemed that the current products in the market don’t solve the problem. The traditional watch requires people to be able to put the wrap into the loop to lock the watch. This is very difficult for people with limited pinching ability. For sports watch that seems to be easy to put on, although it is easy for people to put their hands in the watch, it is still hard for people to lock it so that it would not move around the hand. The magnet wrap doesn’t work for people who use wheelchair because it will interfere with the wheelchair. The watch with slap band seems to work because people can just slap to put it on, yet it is hard for people to take off the watch. Because there is no watch that work in the existing market, we want to invent a watch that incorporates all the advantages of all the previous design.

We started with sketches and low-fidelity prototype to investigate in the movement of wearing a watch. As the pictures below shows, we have used buttons and 3D-printed material to represent a watch in our prototype. We have also used different materials to test the wrap. After trying different designs, we thought the sports watch design was a relatively easy way to put the watch on the hand. We also found that the wrap need to be flexible enough so that people with different mobility and shapes of hands would be able to put their hands in the loop. After idea that we incorporated in our design was to use loops on the watch wrap. This idea was originated from John’s personal life experiences. His clothes has loops on them so that he could just use one finger to wear the clothes. We thought this was a very accessible solution and incorporated this idea in both putting on and taking off the watch. All those concepts are the basis of our design. Another feature that we added to our design was the hook. With previous features and Velcro, the watch was already useful. Nonetheless, we learned from John that he personally would like something more fashionable, and Velcro on the watch didn’t seem cool. Thus, we decided to come up with another version that enables the watch to lock without using Velcro. We started with using hooks in the design. After John tried the prototype and confirmed that the hook idea was feasible, we further looked into other materials that looked safer and more durable. Eventually, we came up with using hook and eye closure. It utilized the same mechanism and was easier to put on the watch wrap and more durable for the users. The users don’t need to be afraid that the hook may move in the wrap.

Our team used the gift cards that we received in the makerathon event to invent a real watch for John, and below are the pictures for the final product.

The cost of such design is very cheap. Since we only design the watch band, the cost of the watch is not included. The watch that we used in the design was selected by John and it costed $143.44. For other people who want a similar watch, they can buy a watch in the Amazon and only retain the watch portion. The price would vary depends on the actual watch the people choose. For the actual design, the main costs are two components: hook & eye closure, and elastic spool. Both of them can be easily found on websites such as Amazon. For the hook & eye closure, the unit cost was $1 each. For the elastic spool, we bought a 396 inch one for $7.99. In our design, we only used 8 inch which costs around $0.2. Therefore, the total cost of our design is around $1.2.

Moving forward, we think there are two possible ways to commercialize our design. The first one is to partner with a watch company. The watch company would use our design of the watch band to come up with accessible watch for the users. The second way is to create customized watch band for people who already have a watch. The users just need to provide the dimensions of the watch, and we can create the watch band that the users can put on the watch.

Introduction

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Hello everybody, we are team Movi! As a group this semester we came together in Professor Vishal’s BADM 357 Digital Making Seminar to combine our individual talents to come to a common goal of trying to make a difference. This semester we paired with Disability Resource and Educations Services (DRES) to work on finding opportunities where we could make a change. This was a phenomenal experience and opportunity for all of us to make a hopefully lasting impact on our community.

Our Mentor: Jenna Fessemyer

Back in the first week of our course, we were happy enough to meet Jenna. Jenna is a current RA at Newman Hall and a senior studying Kinesiology here at the University of Illinois. Jenna has also been using a prosthetic leg her entire life. But oh boy that only fueled her to do more amazing things. Jenna is an avid runner and athlete who just one week ago complete the Boston Marathon. She first sparked our interest when she began to explain her story about her prosthetic leg. In our first meeting, Jenna explained how she has always had trouble walking in the wintery conditions that Champaign Illinois is accustom to for 5 months a year. She went on to explain that even though her prothetic C-leg is worth upwards of $100,000 she is still trained to fall on that leg. With that information, we were baffled to hear that even though her leg is so valuable and she is taught to fall on it in a crisis, there were not many options within the market. After that first day and meeting how amazing of a person Jenna was we were determined to make a difference.

Research

Our group first looked into the market of different prosthetic leg protection types. This helped us brainstorm different ideas and helped us examine the possible impact of our project. We also looked in the different materials and machines that are already available in the market. The first product that we looked into was Jenna’s current leg protection cover, the “Ottobock C-Leg Cover”. This leg protection was very bulky and was not very flexible due to its hard material, silicone. The other protections had a very slim pad of silipos gel. And it only covered the knee portion for Jenna.

Our group quickly realized that these leg protections have a lot of flaws and needed improvement. We were lucky to interview Jenna through this process and Jenna gave us some great insights. First, she told us that the “Ottobock C-Leg cover” can be improved by making the overall product less bulky, especially the back part where all the mechanism is located. Because the leg protection is too bulky in the back, she cannot bend her leg all the backward. With the silipos gel leg protection, Jenna also told us that she does not need protection above her knee. This product will actually hinder her from running and will not actually protect her expensive C-Leg. Lastly, Jenna complained about how the design is too bland. This made her neglect her form using prosthetic leg protections. She wanted to feel special and told us that she will feel more obligated to wear the prosthetic leg if the leg was designed to fit her style.

Prototyping

We thought the design process was going to be easy. However, we were wrong. At first, we went into the process blindly without knowing what our user, Jenna, wants. We tried to come up with our own designs and made prototypes based on the designs we came up with. And we quickly realized that those designs are similar to the volleyball knee pads in the current market. We tried to focus on the knee since it’s the most protruded out portion of the human anatomy. And we assumed that is the portion that needs the most protection. But after our meeting with Jenna, we quickly realized that this design challenge is much different than we first anticipated. We were testing our prototypes for the wrong user and we quickly scrapped the first prototypes.

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Jenna showed us her C-Leg model and told us a few key points she wants in her design. She did not like the connection going around the back of her knee, because there is a lot of mechanisms that should not be disturbed. And she does not need any protection above her knee due to it limiting her movement. She also does not need bulky protection around her knee, because she only wants to protect her C-Leg since it’s a hundred thousand dollars. She also wanted the protection to cover her top and the side portion of the C-Leg. This is where most contact happens when Jenna falls on her C-Leg. Lastly, Jenna wanted the prosthetic leg protection to be able to easily attach and detach to her C-Leg.

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With Jenna’s amazing insights and understanding of the market, we started brainstorming some ideations. We decided to make the straps come behind the leg protection, but it will not be in the way of the C-Leg mechanisms. Then we decided to use a hinge to easily attach and detach the prosthetic leg protection. With these insights in mind, we made two separate prototypes that illustrate our thought process. Now the C-Leg protection will protect the top and side part of the C-Leg and will not go all the way around the back of the C-Leg. This will make the overall design less bulky. Then the design will have a hinge for easy attach and detachment. Finally, the design cover can be customizable according to the user’s needs.

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Overall, we wanted our product to be simple and slim compared to the old “Ottobock C-Leg cover”. Since we cannot have Jenna fall over every single time we make a new prototype, we needed to constantly ask her for improvements and refinements of the prototypes. I think the shin guard gave us a lot of inspiration. She shin guard only protects the shin and the side parts of the leg. So, we tried to follow it’s mechanism, but also fit the C-Leg. And most importantly, we wanted to create a protection that can be customizable according to the user’s preference.

Make-A-Thon

Step 1: We found it very helpful to make a 3D scan of the individual C-Leg. We used a scanner app to convert the image to a .stl file. Our mentor was out of town during our prototyping session so we 3D printer her scanned leg to use for her prototype. Even if you plan to prototype on your own leg, it still will be helpful to scan your leg if you plan on 3D printing because you can build your model design on the actual contours of the scan.

Step 2: We decided to use Acrylic and utilized inkScape to help shape and cut our design. After our design was cut we used a heat gun provided by the fab lab to mold the acrylic to the shape of our 3D printed model of the C-Leg

Step 3: We created the inner padding by using styrofoam and sheets of metal to hole shape to fit inside the acrylic. After the padding was complete we used our tough nylon to create a cloth outer coating and straps to help secure it.

Step 4: We split our acrylic down the middle and added a hinge to make the design easier to put on and simple to take off.

Step 5: Final steps of making everything fit together and ensuring it was up to the standards of safety we had set. At the end of the weekend, we were very happy with what we had put together.

Post Make-A-Thon

After we won the judgment portion of Make-A-Thon we were very excited to continue with our idea for the remainder of the semester. The next week we were able to meet up again with Jenna, our mentor, and do some testing. Overall, the testing went great. We had followed the testing protocol that we had constructed a couple of weeks earlier and were able to work with Jenna. She really liked the way we incorporated different materials and really thought our design was super cool and represented her personality well. There were also definitely areas we needed to improve. The 2 areas that we could improve were to make the interior less slick so the guard would stay secured on and use a more flexible exterior material and make the design less bulky.

The next week we came back to the Art and Design Building and kept working on additional prototypes. To address the bulkiness we took out the interior padding and wanted to change it to silipos gel. Then finally to address the concern of the slickness of the pad we painted the inner nylon layer with a plastic dip which we believed to create more friction between the nylon and the metal part of Jenna’s calf.

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Moving Forward

Even though the semester is over, our project will continue forward. We shared our plans on how we are going to take this further if we have more time. For example, we wanted to test our prototypes with more users. Jenna and Jeannette have been our great users throughout this process. However we learned from this class that everyone has their own opinions and the more user group, the stronger our project will become. For instance, every age group has their own opinion for certain designs. Jeannette wanted a huge padding on top of her C-Leg, whereas Jenna wanted minimal padding on top of her C-Leg. They had to do due to each group age’s daily routine and how often they fall on their prosthetic leg.

Next, we wanted to manufacture for a larger group. We were thinking about partnering with prosthetic leg companies to figure out the different scale of each prosthetic leg. This will give us a general database of how big we should make our prosthetic leg protection. We can maybe narrow down the prosthetic leg protection size into five different sizes.

Ultimately, we want to meet with our users one on one and ask them questions to create a prosthetic leg protection that is for that specific user. We will need to coordinate the size of the prosthetic leg, the color of the prosthetic leg protection, the overall design of the prosthetic leg protection. This may cost more time and effort, but overall it is worth the investment.

Final Presentations Slides

For our project this semester, we created products that would assist users that have difficulty balancing when performing various activities. We identified this particular need in the market after a discussion with our mentor, Jenna Fesemyer. During our first visit to DRES, Jenna spoke about a variety of difficulties facing prosthetic users. When she spoke about her enthusiasm for practicing yoga and the difficulties she has balancing in certain poses, we agreed this was something we wanted to pursue. We decided that it would be interesting to find a solution to this challenge because it is a rare and unique opportunity to work on a product that focuses on recreational purposes versus on a daily need. We used the sticky note activity to help hone in on what this opportunity presented.

First, we needed to understand Jenna’s prosthetic leg to understand where the limitations stem from. Her prosthetic has some limitations and does not perfectly mimic an actual human leg. However, it also has some functionality that almost extends the functionality of her prosthetic past that of a sound limb. For example, Jenna’s prosthetic leg has the limitation of having no ankle movement, so the entire leg has to be supported from her residual thigh and microprocessor knee. However, her microprocessor knee has the ability to “lock” in place, so that if she is in a squatting or kneeling position, her knee will lock so that it supports her in that exact position.

To gain a better understanding of the opportunity so that we could design an effective solution, we needed to delve into research before moving ahead. We gained a lot of useful perspective from an ARC yoga instructor, Marsha at Yoga for Amputees, and Jenna herself. From these interviews and discussions, our team was first set on creating a prosthetic foot that Jenna will insert into her microprocessor knee before yoga practice sessions. The initial design included an insertable rod as the main part of the prosthetic and a flipper-like base that would provide Jenna with more support with increased surface area. To visualize the idea, we created a low-fidelity model. As soon as they were created, we met with Jenna to see what her initial thoughts were regarding our prototype. Jenna suggest that we move the rode to the center of the foot rather in the back like a typical leg so that she will have equal support on all sides.

At the same time, we received feedback from Marsha at Yoga for Amputees and she commented that she has seen some prosthetic leg users creating their own DIY “yoga prosthetics”. These users used a base that had more of a “plunger-esque” shape rather than the flipper shape we initially designed. We shared the feedback from Marsha with Jenna and she also confirmed that she believes that a circular base would be the most stable, and having a little suction could provide even more stability when she practices yoga. However, she commented that the suction would have to be weak enough to easily be picked up, as yoga often involves flowing from one position to another. As a result, we created some sketches for a new design based on the feedback.

During this same period, we also met with William, a FUSION 360 expert at MakerLab, and he provided us with sketches that more closely mimics an actual human limb. The sketches created with his assistance had multiple joints that would provide her with more flexibility and movements.

After taking time looking at all of our sketches and low-fidelity models we crafted, we realized that these solutions would only be usable by a small market. A prosthetic replacement could only be used by prosthetic users, which greatly limits the general market of people who have difficulty balancing. The Make-a-Thon introduced us to the residents of Clark Lindsey as potential users and points of inspiration. Thus, during the Make-a-Thon we decided to focus on a more “sandal-eque” product design that will be accessible to a wider range of users in the market versus than just prosthetic limb users that practices yoga. The Clark Lindsey representative that the bathroom is one of the most dangerous rooms in the home regarding falls. Thus, we pictured one scenario that this design could fit in is in bathrooms in front of the sink where elderly people could slip and fall easily and regularly stand for longer periods of time. The design we came up is shown below. We also applied an additional layer of material on the base that provided the shoe with more grip and locks better on to a yoga mat material when practicing yoga.

Soon after Make-a-Thon, we were eager to share and test our product with our mentor. Her reaction to our product was mostly positive as the sandal was able to provide her with more balance than her usual prosthetic. However, the underlying issue was that the sandal could not provide her with any upper calf support. In order to address this, the team decided to abandon our attempt to create a functional product for a larger audience and revert back to our “plunger-esque” prosthetic limb that would cater to specific individual users. Although the target market is smaller, this design could still be very useful for any prosthetic user. This issue is also not being addressed by other designers or companies as we have been able to find through our research, even though there are specific prosthetics for many activities like running and pointe ballet.

We then created a model through FUSION 360 and printed a scaled prototype. Jenna was worried about having that much movement in the “ankle” so we created the file below to print a full scale version for Jenna to test on.

However, when Jenna went to put on the first print, she was not able to insert it into her prosthetic. She realized that the inside of her prosthetic actually was not hollow, and we would need to create a divot for her prosthetic to be able to slide on. We then designed the following file and printed it for her to try out.

Jenna was really happy with the design! The only thing left to do is add some of the cork material that was on the bottom of the additive design to give a touch of height and more traction. We are very happy with the result as well as she said she could definitely feel increased lateral stability and thinks it is a really cool design to have!

You can see our final presentation here.

Since the class we met the mentors, we knew we wanted to work with Arielle. We were inspired by the way she made awesome use of her time in this class and really made something worthwhile. Arielle really saw an opportunity for change and improvement and through this class was able to even create a business out of it. We were also excited about the area of opportunity she presented and the idea of potentially helping our U of I  team and her company. After meeting with her and Adam, they explained to us the main problems they have when it comes to racing. They showed us the gloves and how they work in part with the hand ring on the wheel.

They told us the major issues they face is that when it rain, it becomes very slippery between the hand ring and the glove. This causes the athlete a lot of trouble as they can’t get as good of contact between the glove and hand ring. Once the weather conditions become poor, it doesn’t matter how much the athlete trained or how fast they race if they can’t make good contact.  We worked with Arielle and the paralympic wheelchair racers to find a better way to cover their hand rings in preparation for a race.

The other problem they face is the fact that there is no easy way to cover the hand ring. The hand ring is made of aluminum, so they need a cover to create friction as well as protect the athlete from injury. Adam told us of the many solutions he has tried over the years to solve this problem, as there is not a solution that exists on the market. Currently, they use a bike tire which they have to carefully place and glue around the hand ring. This is a daunting process that takes a very long time. The cover lasts for a few months, and then they need to be replaced. In order to remove the cover, they have to either heat it with a heat gun or put the ring in the oven to be able to get the cover off.

After meeting with Adam and Arielle, we were able to formulate our opportunity statement. We decided our goal was to work with Arielle and the paralympic wheelchair racers to find a better way to cover their hand rings in preparation for a race.

Initially, we hoped to solve the challenge of how to help the racers in bad weather conditions. Going into the Makeathon, most of our ideas included creating a cover for the hand ring. After meeting with a materials science professor and tips we received from Milestone Labs, we begun to consider what material might be able to create the best kind of friction with the glove when wet. We considered a snap cover, zipper, fabric cover and more. We purchased a variety of materials including a bath mat and a yoga mat. During the Makeathon, we quickly realized that our materials were very soft and didn’t withstand even minimal testing with the glove. We looked around the FabLab for scrap materials from other groups. We found some nylon, as well as a dip plastic rubber called Plasti Dip. We created this low fidelity prototype using our materials. Since we only had two hand rings, one covered and one uncovered, we had to create sections for each material.

After testing each section, we found that our most promising solution was to pursue to Plasti Dip. We discovered that there was a spray version available, which seemed to be a good and easy option. After the Makeathon, we purchased a can of the spray Plasti Dip to create another prototype. We used the spray booth in Art + Design to coat the hand rings and the gloves. The spray was so easy to use. We did the recommended three coats, waiting 30 minutes between each and four hours for it to dry. After it had dried, it had created a nice even coat that was slightly sticky to the touch.

We met with Joey Gibbs from the racing team to test the prototype. Once we arrived at the DRES morning practice, Joey was able to remove one of the hand rings from his chair and attach our prototype to it. The glove we had sprayed was not Joey’s size, so he wants able to test the glove with the ring. However, we did see Jenna, another racer and mentor from our class, and she was able to test the glove for us. After going about 40 feet, the Plasti Dip on the glove started peeling away immediately. We quickly realized this was not a solution.

Once Joey was ready to start practicing using our prototype, he quickly realized that the Plasti Dip created the perfect amount of friction between his glove and the ring. It was sticky enough to create a good grip, but not too sticky that it slowed down his stroke. After about five minutes of Joey practicing at a regular speed, we could see that the rubber spray coating was starting to peel away. Even though it was peeling away, it didn’t affect Joey’s speed or efficiency. After about 15 minutes, the rubber on the ring was almost worn away. We noticed that one section of the ring, however, was withstanding Joey’s strokes. Once we took a closer look at the ring, we realized the part that was no peeling was the part that we had coated with Plasti Dip at the Makeathon. This lead us to believe that our potential solution might be stronger if both types of Plasti Dip are used or if more coats are applied. In the end, Joey had found that his overall speed was actually 1 mph faster with our prototype than normal. This was an exciting finding! We think that if the team pursues trying this material in various ways, they might find a solution that is easier and more effective.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vSCPDDCCokGwA8hs1wBHu_bRoGwgRjhVs2W5UG2UGHB3l1FVsAkUVdL-gtAf-c7rRGiOpEtxQq7OQ6P/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000