Mobility Enhancement/ Smart Closet/Concept

Due to Bobs Condition, Mobility, which was once so easy and natural has become a burden which has left Bob wheelchair bound at all times besides when he decides to make a tremendous effort to walk using crutches for a short period of time.

Recent developments in bionics have proven to be fruitful in the study of the human bodies free form movements and custom developments in exoskeletal attachments which assist and further empower users in a system which is customizable to the user. This technology would provide Bob with a means of mobility to the extent that he could even walk at fast speeds and after customization even run.

This technology will require six parts:

1. Prosthetic leg, custom to Bobs condition and adaptable to the Exoskeleton
2. Processing hardware to calculate forces exerted and countermeasures on the exoskeleton and a voice activated control system to adjust the mount
3. The exoskeleton itself, customizable to Bobs condition
4. Heart rate and vital sign monitors
5. Compact Attachment to wheelchair
6. Battery pack

Bob will be able to carry the exoskeleton where ever he goes as an attachment to his wheelchair, offering Bob the choice to live a more comfortable and normal life through assisted living where and when he chooses to. Companies have already drafted up and started testing these exoskeletons and much of my research will be based on their results.

Concept

Having returned home from a tour in Afghanistan after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off a few metres away from him while on patrol, Bob - a middle-aged army veteran is left with 1 leg and 1 disabled arm.

As a result, Bob is left unable to fend for himself for the most basic of daily tasks, such as opening the front door and going to the bathroom. Nonetheless, Bob is determined to live a life as normal as possible given his situation.

Upon reviewing Bob’s condition, a list of problems Bob encounters during everyday house life surfaced and a list of solutions were carefully researched and conceptualized. Each one of these solutions tackles a different aspect of Bob’s difficulties and together creates an integrated system catered to Bob’s needs.

Each of the rooms Bob has difficulties with is treated as a component of the system as a whole, “the smart home”. Each room is catered to facilitate Bob’s needs and reduce his daily limitations. Just like a human body, each component has a specific role in the system, and one would not be complete without the other. All processes are handled by the, “Brain” or in the smart houses case, the CPU. This integration of technologies and user input provides Bob with an ambient intelligence environment where the digital and physical worlds meet in a symbiotic relationship between user and machine.

Walk through Smart Closet

Limitation: One of Bob’s more sensitive limitations is that of clothing himself. Due to his disabilities, Bob starts his day by performing a balancing act around his closet to simply clothe himself. Being an army man, asking for assistance is both degrading and detrimental to his moral.

Extension: A smart walk through closet catered to Bob’s disabilities and designed to cut corners o Bobs morning routine and reestablishing dressing up as the fun part of his day and not simply another reminder of his limitations.

Components and Functions

1. Clothes Wrack Conveyor belt

The conveyor belt is a two level wrack system which moves in a circular motion, each with independent motion controllers, the higher one for upper body clothing and the lower wrack for lower body clothing. Each space on the wrack has its own unique value. This system is integrated to electronically select two items of clothing and for them to meet at a convenient centralized point and rotated and pulled out at the central point

2. Clothes Wrack Extension

When both items meet at the central point, this vertical extension connects with the conveyor belt at a curved 90 degree angle much in the same way as an alteration in a train’s course is altered on the rails, singling them out and rotating the clothes at more manageable angle whilst also bringing them closer to Bob in the centralized area of the closet

3. Interactive Mirror

An innovative product conceptualized by Lit Studios and Interference Inc., the interactive mirror combines touch screen technology and mirror projection to produce a novel way at interacting with ones own image. Combined with the AR door, a function to cut the projected image down the middle will allow Bob to view himself in his current attire through his reflection as apposed to the projected image of him wearing a digital version of clothing from the conveyor belt.

4. Xbox Kinnect “Augmented Fitting”

A product developed by Microsoft, and cleverly dubbed, “AR door”, this product of Xbox Kinnect will allow Bob to see how he’d look in a virtually projected image of his clothing over his reflection through the interactive mirror. This allows Bob to quickly browse into any digital clothing through gesture recognition and select it by simply touching the clothing image on the mirror. This information is then sent to the conveyor belt where the selected digital clothing is brought up to the clothes wrack extension.

References

http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/2100/468/Chapman%20%26%20Ostwald_Prosthesis%20Technology.pdf?sequence=1

http://storiesofhouses.blogspot.com/2005/06/maison-bordeaux-by-rem-koolhaas.html Koolhaas blog

http://wardrobeconveyor.com/wardrobe-conveyor-home.html

http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/virtual_changing_room_lets_you_shed_the_need_to_shed_your_clothes.php

http://www.likecool.com/Interactive_Mirror--Design--Home.html