Ideation Stage 1

It was made in an ironman shape to make it snug and compact without looking excessively ostentatious

The first design was made to look simple, compact and be strapped on our chest. We dubbed this design “The Ironman” as we drew inspiration from the iron man suit. The design was in line with our hopes of making it convenient, adjustable to the height of the user and is user-friendlyby only requiring the person to strap it on to their chest using Velcro. By strapping it onto the chest, it would also reduce the possibility of the device being pointed in the wrong direction as it would follow where the person is facing.

In retrospect, it was rather naïve to think that all of our components could have fit into an awkward hexagonal design.

Ideation stage 2

The design was imagined to be a handle mounted on a cane. Handgrips, a slot for the pi and a hole for the camera was made. Only later when we received the pi did we know the size allocated for the pi was too small

After consulting our supervisor, Professor Domenico, our design has shifted from a chest mounted device to a cane mounted device. The change was due to the wish to allow the device to pan freely without the person having to move their body. Having the device mounted on the cane would have been also more towards second nature to the blind person as they would not have to add anything to their lifestyle by strapping the device to their chest. However, after obtaining the pi and considering the possible methods of powering the pi, we realised a handle design is not of sufficient size to accommodate all of the components we required. The sizes of the pi and portable battery were severely underestimated. Using a cane handle also would result in an imbalance in the weight of the cane which will likely cause discomfort in using the cane.

Cane body parts were printed with threaded joints to join one with the other

The threads were tight fitting and seems rigid

We advanced our design into making our own cane to allow for better weight balancing in the body of the cane. We printed cylinders that had threaded male and female joints to allow them to join together. This also allowed for height adjustment by using the appropriate number of cylinders. We envisioned a main body would house the battery, the pi and the vibrator motors. However, after we connected 6 cylinders, the joints further away from the handle became more flimsy and susceptible to snapping. This led to a pause in changing design as we considered how to modify it. We considered using carbon nanotubes as the body and even considered reverting to making solely the handle. After an extended discussion with both Prof Domenico and Dr Ho Shen Yong, we finalised our decision back to a chest mounted device. The difference is that instead of making a device that looked like ironman, we decided to make it even simpler by making a fanny-pack like housing. This led us to our final design.

Click here to see our final design: