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Mirrors cast Reflections..

Overall i am very proud of the way our final product turned out. Was it stressful? Yes. Was it hard at times to understand? Yes. Was it hard not knowing what direction to go? Yes. Was it the most stressful subject? One of my most frustrating subjects this entire year. But having said all that, was this course enjoyable? Yes it was. I did this course with rapt attention, since it pushed me to the boundaries. With Andy Connor advocating for us to think of ideas that not just solved one idea or to be a “widget” that is niche, but multiple ideas that had multiple applications. It was really cool how we could let our minds loose to see what we could come up with.

The difference on how this course was extreme, going from a lecturer standing in front of a massive class showing calculations, to lectures where you would do interactive exercises to break up presentations.

Obviously it was not a perfect experience as there were setbacks and a quite a few there were with the journey being ultimately very very vexing. There were a few instances where people were misinformed which made us behind most of the course even by just a lesson in terms of project work. I admit i was one of them, being so overconfident in completing everything for the first assignment that i relaxed and therefore made the group as a whole delayed. Even when i was gone for 2 and a half weeks for the 2nd half of the semester that again severely delayed our progress. There other times that this course did indeed take its toll.

One thing that i would do differently is to communicate with my group more often to see what they know that i don't know or to tell them what i know that they don't. Also with just as group being on the same page but also making sure to be on top of things. Just getting things that need to be done right no matter what.

Having said nearly everything though, i did indeed relish this course and the  project as a whole.

To finish off this project on a high note, enjoy some dancing below ;)

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Présentation de Réalisation  deuxième partie

Embodiment Presentation part 2

After review since we decided to go with splitting up the final idea so the main use would turn to being more focused in the fitness industry and helping in physical activity, i am confident that with adjustments that someone could make the altered product.

For questions some explanation was needed but in my opinion i do think that was because of the choice of wording when speaking about our design and of the flawed presentation

After presenting our idea using our PowerPoint to the rest of the class, there were a few things that i noticed:

After speaking to a couple of classmates they could follow on to what our design was and what we were trying to achieve, however that was not a completely unbiased opinion as they had been following our design journal throughout the ideation process up until now.

Since there were a little amount of questions, either most of the class understood what was going on or barely anyone understood enough to ask questions which is a worrying sight. Hopefully more on the understanding part

While looking at everyone elses ideas and presentation i did see a few things that i did not think about and would of improved in our process and PowerPoint but it was fantastic to see different takes on trying to assist with disabilities. Also all the different types of disabilities and other of the multitude of solutions

The idea i did like the most was the group that had Autism/ASD as their disability. What they did was to make a VR headset that would help a teacher empathise with a primary school child living with autism since those are the periods where living with autism is the hardest since it impacts the rest of ones life. They had a semi-working prototype of what they wanted to achieve as it got across what the goal was. I did like how it was helping with a problem in a different way but not a typical solution (curing autism for example) just achieving normalcy kinda like what we were trying to do with MS. Also one could see that their idea could be attainable and the overall potential use for it including for other areas.

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Validate & Verify

NOTE: Some of what has been said below is mentioned in the PowerPoint presentation in the previous post but this is going to be in my own words and more in depth.

Looking at our design, it is hard to say what it will be like when fully completed since it is based on technology that needs to be advanced. Having said that i do think it will be able to be validated and verified when built whenever that may be. I think we will be able to verify this idea since in the design process we did take the specifications into account when picking our three final ideas (shown in elucidation posts below). I think that we will also be able to validate this design as well since our main need was to make the user be able to walk which this design achieves.

However if this was to be built in the present, the validation and verification process would be different as it would not be feasible to produce with all the resources at hand and the limited research. The price for just the brain sensors alone are estimated to be $100,000, and there is a question of ethics since the invasive surgical procedure required for the brain interface does involve risk of ones life. As even though the affected people live with MS, they may be desperate and risk their life when in the future they may not have to. These are influencing factors into why we cannot recommend going forward and further developing this product as it is.

With this in mind if we were required to chose what to do with this idea in a realistic setting, say in a company for instance, it would be to compartmentalise the design apart with just the bottom half with the translation box and everything below it so that the idea could be of use in another area. This area would be in sports and other physical activity as there are already existing technology that is similar. Like muscle rehabilitation or just as an assistant when exercising to get more out of your muscles. Without the brain signals in the design, it makes it overall much more simpler however the design would still need to be altered slightly in regarding the translation box as it would use pre-programmed software instead of live brain signals. The brain interface components will have to be set aside until technology can catch up so that it can be more convenient for the user, in wearing of sensors and cost for example. Along with waiting for the advancement of technology, research would also have to be explored so that we have a better understanding on how our brain interacts with the signals it sends out. But then explored research could also lead to a change in design because of new information such as having non invasive brain sensors that could just be easily taken off or put on which would eliminate the moral dilemma mentioned above. While we can not make affected people with MS walk unassisted as of now, with the altered product we still could decrease their muscle atrophy by stimulating muscles so that they can retain normal muscle mass and shape. This approach would most likely be able to be completed in the present day also.

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Présentation de Réalisation

Embodiment presentation

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lLk1mtGaCqD0551lKGGySmIH06nLGgPc/view?usp=sharing

PowerPoint presentation showed above. This is the one we as a group will use to present to the rest of the class for our embodiment therefore some slides may not make sense as they are to be discussed and talked about in person.

NOTE: The prototype in question is the physical model shown in previous posts

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System architecture

This is our system architecture that we did. We decided to do the functions of the components rather than just the components themselves to show how they interact with each other. The blue lines indicate when the process is going onto the next component and the black lines are when the same part of the component goes through more functions be it software or hardware.

The translation box is the main hub of the design where a lot of the software would be incorporated. There were other ways we thought of having the ideas functions turn out. For instance having another box in between the brain interface and the translation box or having components on the brain sensor. both of these options would not change the functions but just the process as some software and hardware functions would take place somewhere else in the products process. We chose this option as it would be most likely the easiest to conceal under clothes and we did not like the other options.

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DSM

Another team member mainly did the Design system matrix with input from the team, as we did this in his book as to easiliy write down what we wanted and draw matrix itself. The Design system matrix or DSM is shown below.

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Final design drawing

Using the prototype model, i decided to do a final design drawing on how it may look when fully completed (shown above).

EMI is Electrical Muscle Interface or so called pads that will stimulate muscles to make them move. The translation box is where the signals from the brain go so that the EMIs can be activated. The transmittal wire and Brain interface read and send the signals from the brain to the translation box. The upper is also a compression garment as well but has no use other than to hide the transmittal wire and to make it more convenient than just having a wire that goes up the back by itself.

This is showing the electrodes in more detail as in how they are going to be implemented. This gives a better idea on how the electrodes interact with the human body. This is the only change the team made to the final drawing.

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Prototype model

We wanted to make a prototype of how it may look aestheically so we took some compression shorts and made them to look like if they had pads in them to produce the stimulus to move muscles. We just wanted to see how it would look in reality and if there were any major complications. We gave the shorts to one team member because he was most comfortable with it to finish off.

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Some progress

For actually doing the work required, my main responsibility is to do the Power point to display all the information on our project.

A few things that need to be in the PowerPoint:

What are the things that we know about so far?

- As in what technology is already existing out in the world today that can be seen to be used in our own design

What are the things that are not known?

- Is there any specific things that we need to find out before we can make this product? Is there any processes that need to be invented before we can try to make it?

General information

- What is our product? What are we trying to achieve? 

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How to embody our product

Beginning of week 10 and we now are thinking on how we are going to do the embodiment of this product. This is what we decided upon:

 - Physical prototype model

We are going to do a physical model on what it may look like instead of doing a model on solid works or other CAD software, as our design involves clothing instead of being a solid object or mechanism. We are going to showcase how a part of the final idea would look instead of doing an end model.

 - PowerPoint

To present the knowledge that we have gathered a PowerPoint showcasing such things as in general information, like a description on how our design is going to work.

And a third thing that was not decided by the team but something that i may do individually. I was thinking of doing a drawing of our idea so to get across clearly what needs to be done if it was going to be made.

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Pros and Cons

In a new week we went over the pros and cons of each of our three ideas as a team. This was done in another team members notebook so that we could quickly draw diagrams if we chose to. I also did a bit of thinking by myself which is not shown in the picture.

Overall we chose the second idea since it will be concealable but most importantly will simulate natural human movement since it uses the human body. This should make the person wearing it to feel like a normal human being.

The reasons why we didn't pick the other design were that the first idea would be durable but also very big and bulky with an exoskeleton in a sense and a backpack like product on top of it. Making extremely heavy. The third idea would be very stable but the technology required would be needed to be explored since it would be extremely expensive and also has to be miniaturised to the extent that is needed. Also the technology as it stands today would not be suitable for walking use.

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3rd Elucidation

Clarification on the three ideas chosen (3):

Idea 3:

Sustaining weight: Shoes support

Stability: Propulsion shoes

Movement: Propulsion shoes

For shoes support these would be like braces that come from the shoes going up the leg to try to get the body weight to be able to be held.

With the propulsion shoes part, these would be incorporated with the shoes support so that it could provide stability and movement. This is inspired by how satellites use thrusters to correct its course when orbiting the earth. Thrusters would be placed all around the shoes support so that it could be able to correct the course of the person walking but also provide movement as well.

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2nd Elucidation

Clarification on the three ideas chosen (2):

Idea 2:

Sustaining weight: Skins

Stability: Human natural

Movement: Human natural

This idea is most likely the simplest of the three being skins that use electrical muscle stimulation so that the disabled person can use their own body to achieve all functions. This idea would probably contain both upper and lower skins to either activate the stimulus and or hide wires.

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1st Elucidation

Clarification on the three ideas that were chosen.

We finally made each idea into a singular design that we all could imagine. Starting with idea 1

Idea 1:

Sustaining weight: skeleton

Stability: Gyro backpack

Movement: Propulsion jet-back

The skeleton part of this idea would be an exoskeleton but would instead look like a spine that would run down and wrap around most of the body on the backside like something shown above.

Gyro backpack is the idea of having some way to stabilse the user like using a gyroscope

The propulsion backpack part is based on the existing idea for moving anyone faster as shown below. For our idea i was thinking of dialing down the thrust for walking speed instead.

 All three elements would then be combined to achieve the overall functions.

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Po-tent-ial.

Decision matrix

Now looking at the morph chart, we wanted to sift down the designs to three potential ideas that we liked the concept of. These are the three products that we came up with. The numbers signifying the beginning of each design as a whole. e.g 1st idea consisting of: skeleton, gyro backpack and propulsion jet back 

We thought that these ideas had a lot of potential considering what the function that it had to achieve and also what that part of the overall final design it could look like. Especially since for some of the ideas on the morph chart, including all shown had different interpretations from everyone on what they could be.

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Morph chart

Beginning of week 6 we decided to do Morph charts individually and then combine our thoughts and ideas into a singular morph chart. Here is my morph chart that i did individually. I went with the main functions and only the functions of the design that it had to achieve, being sustaining weight, stable and movement.

Some of these that are written and drawn on here are more conceptual that even i haven't fully thought about them, if it just popped into my head i put it down since one of those ideas could become a part of the final product. 

When we met up again later in the week, the team choose to use my one as a base since there were ideas that were similar and also because of the layout i did mine in.

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Requirements report

For week 5, the team further adjusted the requirements:

User requirements

USR1: The disabled individual shall be able to walk unassisted.

USR2: The disabled individual shall be able to put on the solution without personal assistance.

USR3: The disabled individual shall be able to take off the solution without personal assistance.

USR4: The disabled individual shall be able to stand independently for a minimum of 10 minutes.

System Requirements

SR1: The system shall be able to sustain the weight of the disabled individual.

SR2: The system shall be stable while in use.

SR3: The system shall be able to provide omnidirectional movement to the disabled individual.

SR4: The system shall be comfortable for the disabled individual to don without personal assistance.

SR5: The system shall be comfortable for the disabled individual to take off without personal assistance.

SR6: The system shall be comfortable for the disabled individual to use.

These are the changes we made and then put into our requirements document.