This week at the FabLab, we finished our watch prototypes! It was really great to see all of the pieces we had worked on over the past few weeks come together. First, we coded our Arduino Uno boards to give certain outputs at certain positions based on the tilt sensors. Once programmed, we assembled the strap, bottom, top, face, and board all together! It was very fun to see the output on the computer and see everything working perfectly!
Overall, the time at the FabLab this week was very successful. After the watch, we created quick storyboards. Our storyboard showed the closeness of the amputee community. Overall, from our discussion with Marsha, it was very clear that amputee communities are fairly close even in big cities like Chicago. At one point or another, she had met a ton of the amputee women in Chicago through yoga classes and speaking events. We wanted our storyboard to show this, so we demonstrated a woman like Jenna going to a yoga class with our design, and showing another amputee yogi where she had gotten it. Having our design as an open source design, the power of community could spread this design to anyone who needs it. They could customize the design as needed for them and go to a local FabLab or library to 3D print the file. This type of accessibility on the affordability side is exactly what we are looking to provide!
Moving forward, our team is looking forward to finding people at our Tuesday event to help with our capabilities. Since we do not have an industrial design major or engineer on our team, our Fusion360 experience is limited. We are hoping that we can find some people to join our team who can bring our designs to life!
Hi Sam! It’s interesting to learn that amputee communities are very close-knit. This takeaway will definitely help my team moving forward as we think about how to pass along information about our prosthetic cover. I also agree with you that the watch building exercise was a lot of fun and it was great to see all of our hard work paying off!
Hi Sam! Sounds like Deanna was able to give your team amazing insight. In terms of the experience do you know how an amputee’s experience would differ from Jenna’s experience as she was born with the condition? I am interested to hear if you think there is a difference or if you think they both have similar experiences. Good luck with your project hope you find a Fusion 360 expert!