Seth McFarland, Stanley Liu, Andrew Kim

John Wilcox, Josh Stroud

Mission Statement Increase elderly patients’  mobility  using  robotic  partners.

Abstract This project studies the potential uses of next-generation cooperative robots in home health-

care with an emphasis on the elderly market. We partnered with the NASA Ames Research Center, Berkeley Institute of Design, and Ashby Village (AV), a senior village community, to explore this space. Needs identified by interviews are addressed in two prototypes. We introduce the Tensegrity Chair Lift, a product which targets a common problem for senior citizens. We discuss the business case and social, economic, and environmental concerns for the proposed product.

Customer and User Needs USER AND EXPERT INTERVIEWS (APPENDIX A) User interviews included Chris Fin, a 42-year old quadriplegic; Joan, a 73-year old with Stage-4 cancer at Ashby Village; Audrey, a UC Berkeley student with a specific strain of anemia; Kie, a quadriplegic UC Berkeley student; and Shirley, a widow living at home. We focused on identifying their specific needs and issues in the medical products they currently used.

Expert interviews  gave  us  the  market  stakeholders’  perspective  on  current  products  and  needs  that need to be fulfilled in the current market. These interviews included an architect, an interior designer, and a volunteer from the Ashby Village senior community. We worked closely with the staff at AV to interview members of their network of seniors and volunteers. We also bounced ideas off our mentor in the Berkeley Institute of Design, and visited the NASA Ames Research Center to learn more about the Tensegrity robotics technology. Finally, we interviewed other stakeholders, including a doctor, the director of the Disabled Students Program at Cal, and several staff at a medical supply store.

ANALYSIS: OBSERVATIONS, INSIGHT, AND FEEDBACK The team put together an initial draft of our user needs, gathered from 12 interviews with both

senior citizens, people with disabilities, and experts in design and architecture. Upon feedback from a Stanford professor, however, we realized that our needs were too broad. We decided instead to focus on two specific needs and a specific user group, the elderly, in our prototyping process.

From analysis of our interviews, we ultimately chose Independence and Social Connection as the most important needs. Both needs showed up again and again in both interviews and market research of elderly users. We ultimately chose Independence as our top need. Mobility and Social Connection were delegated to primary needs, one level down in our hierarchy. For a more in depth analysis and hierarchy of user, refer to Appendix B. We made these decisions late in the semester, so our more broad 5 needs guided us through the concept generation and selection phases.

Concept Generation (Appendix C) We used an iterative design process to generate concepts which addressed our user needs

through two rounds of ideation and refinement. Each cycle consisted of an initial brainstorm, concept voting, concept consolidation, and user feedback.

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION The team split potential users of Tensegrity applications to home healthcare two user groups: people with physical disabilities and elderly citizens. Both of these user groups wanted more

independence and safety while allowing for customization to their specific needs and disabilities. With our first brainstorm, we tried to target both groups.

INITIAL BRAINSTORM (CONCEPT GENERATION) In our initial brainstorm, we developed over 50 concepts which addressed many of our broad user

needs. A sampling of our initial concepts:

Seeing eye vest Robotic Nurse Snake form-factor Exoskeleton

Muscle stretcher Device in bed Tensegrity wallet

Suspension wheelchair

Social buddy robot

Although we did not use of all of these concepts, they drove our second round of ideation. We consolidated these concepts into broad themes of form and function, which served as jumping off points for our second concept generation brainstorm.

REFINED BRAINSTORM (CONCEPT GENERATION) In our second series of brainstorms, we generated concepts specifically for elderly home healthcare, targeting our needs at the time. We generated another 50 concepts, bringing our total to 100 concepts. We then voted for our favorite concepts, and compiled a list of our top 12 concepts:

1. Rehab device 2. Social Ball 3. Medicinal Dispenser 4. Power Lifter 5. Ramp

6. Assistive Visor 7. Empathetic Snake 8. Chair Assist 9. Biofeedback Vest 10. Walker

11. Customizable Ball 12. Back Brace

Concept Selection CONCEPT SCREENING MATRIX (APPENDIX D)

The team used a selection matrix to compare various tensegrity concept categories. As a benchmark, we used the industry standard for care: a hired caregiver. We screened based on our core user needs at the time, as well as alignment with team goals and technical feasibility. The results of this screening process led us to focus on several areas for concept scoring. The concepts which met the most success met at least four of our five core needs at the time, as well as cost-effectiveness and prototype viability.

CONCEPT SCORING (APPENDIX E) We used a concept scoring matrix (Appendix E) to decide on concepts to prototype. We scored

the top concepts based on the same criteria from our screening matrix, and weighted the criteria based on importance. We then assigned numerical scores to each concept in each category. From this scoring matrix, the  “Social  Ball”  and  “Chair  Assist”  concepts  were  clear  winners, and continued to the prototype phase. Both offered clear advantages in prototype viability, ease of use, and cost. We also prototyped the third-highest  scoring  concept,  the  “Assistive  Visor,” for feedback at the Midterm Tradeshow.

Prototyping, Final Product, and User Feedback EXOSKELETON TENSEGRITY PROTOTYPE (APPENDIX F)

To better understand Tensegrity, we rapid prototyped  the  “Exoskeleton  Tensegrity” concept. We used a 3D printer to manufacture an ABS plastic tensegrity finger. This prototype helped us understand how difficult it is to construct a balanced tensegrity structure. However, the Tensegrity Exoskeleton didn’t  directly  fit  with  our user needs, so we scrapped it.

TENSEGRITY SOCIAL BALL (APPENDIX G) A second prototype we developed was the “Tensegrity Social Ball” (video). The ball is self-

actuated and interacts with users in the home. The ball would provide timely medication reminders and monitor their health while providing a friendly conversation. We wanted to explore the soft and interactive nature of Tensegrity technology, but, seniors had a difficult time understanding the product in interviews. They didn’t  express  much interest once they seemed to understand the concept. Seniors were not sold on the idea of social interactions with a robot. Ultimately, we decided to focus on our final prototype and product: the Tensegrity Chair Lift.

TENSEGRITY CHAIR LIFT (APPENDIX H) Our final product is the Tensegrity Chair Lift. We decided to

choose the Tensegrity Chair Lift (Fig 1) as our final product because of both positive feedback from user interviews and its viability as a future product. Our first “feels-like”  version of the prototype demonstrated the lifting mechanism by hinging two pieces of plywood together and attaching rope on the back of the top plywood piece to lift the seat.

We further developed the tensegrity chair prototype by covering it with fabric. This addition improved the aesthetics, enabling users to interact with the chair without being distracted by its non-tensegrity design. We  developed  a  “looks-like”  prototype  in  CAD,  which we included in Appendix H.

PROTOTYPE USER FEEDBACK (SEE PROTOTYPE APPENDICES F-H) After developing our initial product prototypes, we met with seniors and experts to demonstrate our ideas and receive feedback.

● Shirley, an elderly woman, was very interested in the potential of new technology to help seniors sit and stand up from their chairs, in the form of our Tensegrity Chair Lift. She immediately thought of a friend who would use the product, but called it ugly and an eyesore.

● Joan, another elderly woman living at home, thought the Tensegrity Chair Lift could be very useful if it was light enough to be carried around and used on chairs and benches when seniors are out of their house (for example: stadiums, parks, concerts).

● Joan’s  husband, who has severe dementia, was  injured  because  he  didn’t  realize  he  had activated the motorized lifting chair in which he was sitting. End result: he fell, and they disconnected the motor immediately.

FIGURE 1: INTRODUCING THE TENSEGRITY

CHAIR LIFT

● Cheryl,  an  architect  for  Ashby  Village,  disliked  our  social  ball  prototype,  because  she  couldn’t  understand what problem it solved. She also mentioned the ball was a major tripping hazard for someone with poor vision and reflexes.

Economic Analysis & Business Plan (Appendix I) BENCHMARKING Price of comparable items:

Wheelchair $250 and up. [1] UpLift Seats $100 and up. [2] Caregiver $18 and up per hour. [3] $26,000 per year for service four hours per day. US nursing home $76,680 per year. [4]

MARKET SIZE In 2008 there were 38,690,169 seniors in the US, which is 12.7% of the population [5] (Fig 2).

Assuming 20% of the elderly would have a use for our product, maximum market size is approximately 7.5 million users. If we advertise to potential customers through AARP, and other senior organizations, which have a combined membership approaching 38 million, we estimate we could reach 50% of our potential user base. Of the customers who see advertising, 3% are estimated to purchase the product within a 3-year time span. This gives us about 100,000 units sold over three years. Annualized, the sales are $10 million a year if the unit is priced at $300, strong sales for a small company. With an approximate manufacture cost of $85 per unit, expenditures would be $2.8 million annually on hardware. The company could have 60 employees at an average overhead of $80,000 per employee per year, and still turn $2.4 million in profits annually. Although these numbers are very optimistic, they showcase the large market and potential profit margins in selling to American senior citizens.

FIGURE 2: PROJECTED US

ELDERLY POPULATION FOR

NEXT 50 YEARS

Triple Bottom Line Analysis (Appendix I) Our triple bottom line addresses our users and their needs, the environment, and provides us with a sustainable business model. Check out the summary diagram below:

Lessons Learned (Appendix J) GENERAL THOUGHTS

Our challenges this semester are best summed up by this quote from playwright John Galsworthy: “Idealism  increases  in  direct  proportion  to  one's  distance  from  the  problem.”  As we got closer to the problem through user interviews, we realized the scale and difficulty of the elderly healthcare issue facing the US. Our concepts subsequently became less abstract and idealistic, and more concrete. We were surprised at how well Ashby Village was addressing this problem, and at the strengths of a community over a product or service.

We also learned about the need  to  “dive  deep.”  We  continually  had  a  problem  with  the  initial  broad and abstract specifications of our project, and consequently had trouble creating concrete needs and concepts. As we received feedback about this issue, we adjusted by focusing on specific needs, problems, and concept areas. Our project was a  “solution in search of a problem.”

The team had a lot of trouble understanding what exactly Tensegrity was, and where it was useful. Only when we visited the NASA Ames Research Center, and met with the Tensegrity Robotics researchers there, did we began to understand the strengths of Tensegrity robots. Unfortunately, this happened in week 6 of the semester. The lesson here was to thoroughly research and understand a new technology before you try to brainstorm concepts for it.

RECOMMENDATIONS ● This project was difficult to communicate, both as we struggled to understand the technology

and explain it to users. The NASA team needs to come up with clear and compelling prototypes to successfully communicate the concept, and explore possible  “experience  demonstrations.”

● Through our research, we became convinced that Tensegrity robotics have the potential to make a powerful impact in improving quality of life for elderly users in the home.

Works Cited [1] Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=4075961

[2] Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dhpc&field-keywords=uplift%20seat

[3] Caregiverlist.com

http://www.caregiverlist.com/Rates.aspx

[4] Payingforseniorcare.com

http://www.payingforseniorcare.com/longtermcare/statistics.html

[5] CIA World Factbook

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_(United_States)#Costs_and_funding_challenges

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid#Budget

Appendices Appendix A: User and Expert Interviews

2.12.13

Interview with a UC Berkeley Bio-Engineering Major About the Interviewee:

UC Berkeley Bio-Engineering (4th-Year Undergraduate) Minoring in Mechanical Engineering Does research on mechanics of hip and shoulder implants with Professor Lisa Pruitt, UC Berkeley Interned with surgeon for one summer and observed many surgeries

Lessons Learned from Interview:

Interview the expert in context. (as described in the video) An interview about a hospital is much  harder  in  the  person’s  house than at the hospital where they might have been reminded of important product functionalities necessary in their job.

Don’t  take  notes  while  interviewing.  Instead record the interview and take notes soon afterwards when listening to the tape recording. This will allow the conversation to flow more naturally.

Have  far  more  prepared  questions  than  necessary,  but  don’t  feel  compelled  to  use  them  all. By taking more questions than necessary into the interview the interviewer can allow the conversation to take any direction it needs to, instead of forcing the expert to answer questions that might be less important than other (possibly unexpected) things the expert wants to discuss.

Give the subject of the interview time to prepare. By giving the interview subject a description of the project in advance, they might have thoughts prepared for the interviewer. Also, this means when they are going about their job for the few days prior to the interview they are thinking about their job in context of what you are going to ask.

User Needs:

Quickly and easily calibrated or tested to confirm safe operation before use Respond to oral commands The robot is able to be sterilized Lost Cost system Easily repaired or reused Materials - hypo-allergenic, heat-resistant for autoclave, Small size - hospitals have limited space Battery powered so there are no cords to trip over Uniform treatment across multiple patients Keeps records of treatments for each patient Has multiple levels of redundancy for safety

Can confirm the identity of the patient to ensure the proper person is treated

Transcript:

What are the potential applications of robotics technology?

Object retrieval, in small spaces - say under a bed. A patient may drop something and the robot might retrieve it from under the bed. A tensegrity robot might roll1 to move under small spaces like under the bed in this example. (Interviewee cites NASA example)

Another possible use: Robot has a timer and gives the proper doses of medication at the proper time.

Walk me through the procedure to use a robot in an operating room.

1. The robot would have to be prepared or sterilized. 2. The nurse would have to test the robot was functional and operating safely before the patient or

doctor entered 3. The  robot  would  respond  to  doctor’s  voice  commands 4. The doctor tells the robot which surgery is being performed and what instruments are in use 5. The robot would be put through an autoclave when the procedure is finished

Other important details:

-The robot must be battery powered so there are no cords to trip over.

- The robot must respond to oral commands because the surgons hand

- The entire robot must be able to fit into the autoclave for sanitation.

- Doctors want a robotic scrub nurse who can keep track of his/her tools and hand him/her the proper instrument at the right time.

What do you like about existing products?

- Intiutive  Surgical’s  Da  Vinci  Robot  allows  for  very  small  controlled  movements  can  be  made  using  robotics in surgery.  This  robot  goes  inside  small  spaces  inside  the  human  body  where  a  surgeon’s  hand  would not fit.

- Robotics systems in healthcare allows for more uniform treatment across multiple patients. This allows for better treatment of all patients. Also, medical studies that use robotics have better control groups and fewer variables in care that might unintentionally affect results.

What are the disadvantages of current robotics in medicine?

-Most robotics products are very large and only used in the operating room. The technology has applications  outside  the  operating  room,  but  it  isn’t  being  developed  further.  

What issues do you consider when purchasing a robot for healthcare use?

- Can it be sterilized? - Cost

- Materials - allergies, heat-resistant materials, - Size - hospitals have limited space Citation:

1 http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/tech/asr/intelligent-robotics/tensegrity/superballbot/

2.22.12

Rebecca suffers from Scoliosis Pre-med, 2nd year student

Statement Need

“doctors  didn’t  care  about  my  pain” Product should be empathetic

“nurses  were  late  with  my  medication” Product must be able to complete time sensitive tasks

“I  cannot  sit  or  stand for long periods, many chairs are  to  uncomfortable”

Product must protect the patients weakened regions.

“I  plan  my  day  around  seating  and  walking  distances”

Product must provide user with equipment to travel freely.

“I  spent  all  day  in  the  hospital  bed  watching  TV” Product must provide companionship

“my  mother  had  to  take  care  of  me  24-7 Product must reduce the caretakers workload

“specialists  changed  and  did  not  know  what  the  previous  specialist  had  done”

Product must interface with and improve communication between all users rather than add complexity

“hospital  checked  up  four  times  after  surgery” Product provides better monitoring that is remote

Reflection

Rebecca was my first interview for this project. I feel like although our interview had a decent flow, if I could do it over I would have focused in more on some of the specific questions. Especially now that we have focused on specific project goals I would like to interview her again and ask her more about each concept in specific.    Rebecca’s  interview  was  difficult  to  get  as  much  out  of  because  her  greatest problem was the pain. She had some restrictions on her mobility, but other than that her problem was essentially pain.

Having Josh know her enabled him to ask more specific questions after I had steered the conversation in a specific direction but run out of questions. If Josh had led the interview, his knowledge of her would have steered the conversation but instead it added more depth.

Interview Transcript

Partial Transcript of notes taken while doing the interview:

Q: What do you on a typical day?

Spends most of her time working -> Chemistry, physics

On weekends, I work, do something with her boyfriend or her close group of friends.

Wake up, shower, and take my meds. Has a handicapped parking permit and drives to class.

Q: Do you feel like any part of your routine is different than normal?

“I’m  in  constant  pain,  all  the  time.”  Her  life  has  been  very  altered  by  her  crippling  back  pain.  My  routine  is different from everyone else.

Q: If you could have something to help you out, independent of cost or feasibility, what would you want to be improved in your life. What would you do to make it better?

On  a  typical  weekday  morning,  I  don’t  think  there’s  any  outside  influence that could really impact how I feel.  The  majority  of  my  issues  can’t  be  helped  at  that  point.  

Q: What about  in  the  rest  of  your  days,  is  there  anything  you’d  change?  I  know  you  spend  most  of  the day on campus, walking and standing is really tough right?

The only thing I can do indefinitely is lie down.

Q: Do you alternate between sitting and standing?

I  try  not  to  stand  too  long,  I  walk  around  campus  but  I  don’t  stand  for  an  hour.  Any  time  I  go  to  the  library, I have to use a comfortable chair, so I plan my  schedule  around  that.  When  I  go  home,  I  don’t  sit  at a table; I lie in bed or stand up.

Q: You plan to have better places to sit on campus. What else do you have to plan around in your day? That’s  a  big  one:  what  seating  I  have  access  to,  where  I’m  going.  In  social  situations,  it’s  even  worse.  It’s  more  minor.  When  you’re  in  a  position  like  mine,  sitting  in  an  uncomfortable  chair  for  an  hour  may  not  be  the  worst  thing,  but  when  you  put  that  in  combination  with  carrying  a  bag,  backpack,  it’s  hard.  

I have huge  problem  set  books  which  are  the  only  thing  I  can  carry,  I  can  drive  them  but  it’s  difficult  and  an inconvenience, especially when I have to carry my computer as well. When I can, I plan my day around dropping stuff off at my car.

In terms of school, it’s  hard  for  me  to  sit  down  an  extended  period  of  time  and  take  notes,  because  of  my  back  problems.  So  having  a  computer  helps  with  that,  I  don’t  have  to  that.  

Q: You’ve  gone  through  a  couple  surgeries.  Have you had major surgery?

I have scoliosis, which we found when I was 8 years old. I wore braces for it, and when I was a senior in high school, I had a spinal fusion surgery (May 2011). They cut open an incision 14 inches long in my back; they placed rods on either sides of the curve, and put screws in my vertebrae to hold the curve of my spine in place. The recovery was quite extensive; the surgery was 8 hours long

Q: What was your first memory?

My first memory was opening my eyes in the hospital room I was going to be next 8 days. I woke up in excruciating pain ->  screaming  in  pain.  “Begging  for  pain  killers.”  I  spent  two  months  in  a  hospital  bed  in  my house, slowing gaining my mobility and freedom. I spent the whole summer recovering. She was 18 years old.

Q: What was care like at home?

Especially in the  first  couple  weeks,  constant  care.  I  couldn’t  have  been  left  alone.  Her  mom  needed  to  take  complete  care  of  her;  we  didn’t  want  to  hire  a  nurse  who  wouldn’t  have  done  a  good  job.  I  couldn’t  shower  by  myself;  I  couldn’t  dress  myself  or  even  get  out  of  bed. Insane amounts of medications to manage, prescriptions. Having someone there for me was incredibly lucky (my mom).

Q: How was having your mom take care of you?

My  mom  didn’t  leave  the  house  for  three  weeks.  When  she  left,  she  left  me  with  someone  else.

Q: What interactions did you have with hospital staff after returning home?

A mix of nurses and specialists came to visit the house, to make sure she was doing the right exercises, dress the wound, and recovering.

Q: Did the hospital track your recovery?

No updates, really. Obviously I followed up with my symptoms, and the hospital called for an assessment of the quality of your stay.

Q: What other surgeries have you had?

I  had  four  other  surgeries,  injections  into  my  back,  and  a  heart  surgery.  I’m  having  another  major  surgery this summer.

Q: What were the surgeries like?

Bad anesthesia experience with heart surgery, I woke up in the surgery because they did the anesthesia wrong. That was really scary, traumatic. I was very much affected by that procedure.

Q: What was a day like two weeks after the surgery?

Wake  up  at  9.  My  temperature  was  off,  I  would  be  really  cool.  I  would  let  me  mom  know  that  I’m  up;  get  in the hospital bed with the help of my men. Take all my meds, because I would be in intense pain, a cocktail of meds. She would make me breakfast. I would watch TV all day long, which was all I could do. I would very, very slowly walk around the cul-de-sac, and that would be my exercise for the day. I would tell her when I needed to go to the bathroom, and she would get me out of the bed. And then 930-10, I would go back to bed; she would help me go up the stairs very slowly.

Q: What sort of emotional state were you in?

Depends, sometimes all you can think about the pain. Your life is marked, day by day, by pain, pills, hospital bed, TV show; the next TV show would break up your day. Markers of my day, the next TV show. When my ex-boyfriend came home, that would be a huge marker, when he came to visit. Or when family would spend time with you, which was huge. Least amount of pain was a marker. Meaningful.

Q: So loneliness was a big issue?

Oh  yes:  I’m  the  only  one  in  the  hospital  bed,  an  invalid.

Q: Another surgery this summer, what do you wish could be different or better? Ideally.

In the hospital and the home, it was so much of a burden on my mother to do everything for me. I would want to lift that burden off of her, which would be very meaningful. Because she could be there for me, because she was doing so much for me, she was emotionally and physically drained. That would be meaningful. Stuff like that.

Getting food, or putting a pillow under my knees, because I needed that. Giving me the right medicine the first week, or even in the hospital. There was a problem: I had to get the correct doses on the correct time, every time.

There was such an issue of not getting adequate medication on time, even if the nurse was coming in and  giving  me  a  pill.  It  didn’t  happen, nurses were switching shifts. You literally had to hunt the nurse down.

Q: Did you have other frustrations?

The insensitivity of doctors. I had to get the dressing of my back. They put adhesive all over my back and then the doctor came in, and without any concern for my pain, every time he touched my back I was in a spasm of pain. He turned me over and ripped it off. I screamed out loud. Only some doctors, some  nurses.  Everyone  was  very  busy,  things  don’t  get  done  on  time,  and  things  get  lost  in  translation. If  you  need  to  use  the  bathroom,  they  won’t  be  there.  

There’s  not  good  communication,  when  you  see  the  physical  therapist,  what  they  did  one  day,  the  next  guy  didn’t  know  about.

You’re  in  a  different  world  from  your  family,  you  in  a  hospital  bed  and everyone is normal.

2.23.13

Chris  Finn’s  Home  Healthcare  Interview  Writeup

Introduction and Reflections

Chris Finn is a quadriplegic and the coach of the USA National Power Soccer Team, which he has led to consecutive world championships. Power soccer is a competitive team sport for people with disabilities who use powered wheelchairs to play a specially-designed variant of soccer,  and  continues  to  be  a  very  important  part  of  Chris’  life.

We met Chris through a contact at the Ed Roberts Campus, a leading national institution dedicated to disability rights and universal access. Chris has never let his disability hold him  back,  instead  describing  it  “more  like  a  new  challenge,  I  have to work out and  do  things  differently.”    He  was  only  one year older than me, a senior in college, when he suffered a freak accident which left me permanently disabled. I

Two of the major themes from our hour-long interview with him were mobility, and independence. Primary needs were mobility, reliability/trust, independence, empathy, and 24-hour care.

Independently taking care of himself was one important need. Another secondary need was to remove some of the burden from his caregivers and family, important to him to that he could do some stuff on his own. Whether he wanted to cook his own meals, get into the shower by himself, or drive himself to a meeting, he often was unable to do this, and this inability frustrated him.

“Chris  Finn  caught  the  soccer  bug at an early age. Growing up in Wisconsin, Chris spent most of his childhood and high school years participating and playing at a competitive level. But a freak accident at 21, which left him a quadriplegic, ended what he thought would be any chance to continue competing at the sport he loved. With little designs left in athletics, Chris finished school and began looking for a career. Little did he know his life would come full circle…”

–http://thebadassproject.com/chris-finn/

Statement “I  can’t  get  into  the  shower on my own, but I hate  having  a  caregiver  help  me,  it’s  embarrassing.” “I’m  always  traveling  and  I  can’t  carry  150lbs  of  equipment  with  me.” “I  wish  I  could  use  my  microwave  to  make  my  own dinner, and take some of the burden off my  caregiver.” “The  height of counters, tables, and other furniture  is  never  where  I  need  them  to  be.” “Cooking  and  other  housework  is  always  a  problem for me, since everything is difficult to access.” “My  dad  fed  me  in  the  hospital,  he  pretended  the fork was a bumblebee and buzzed it into my mouth. When I came off my ventilator, the first  thing  I  told  him  was  “Dad,  if  you  do  that  again  I’ll  kill  you!”  (jokingly). “I  found  it  really  difficult  to  go  from  being  an  invincible 20-year-old to losing all my independence and mobility.”

“My  attendants  spend  a  lot  of  time  to  help  me  stretch  my  muscles.”

“If  my  attendants  were  to  abandon  me  or  not  show  up,  I  would  be  screwed!”

“Sometimes  I  get  lonely  since  I’m  not  as  mobile, you can get people to come to you, but you have to make the effort.”

Needs Product provides or enhances dignity to the user. Product is lightweight and easy to transport. Product helps user with everyday actions. Product needs to compensate for poorly targeted design choices of home use spaces. Product allows user to perform chores and daily activities. Product allows user to retain dignity. Product provides a feeling of independence to user.

Product assists existing caregivers.

Product does not break down, and provides a sense of reliability.

Product eases communication with outside world, and reduces outside loneliness.

CHRIS FIN INTERVIEW NOTES Easy Pivot Cons -very heavy, has to be broken into 3 parts, 150lbs Pros -Helps him get in and out of bed Chris wants something lighter that could collapse like a stroller, mobile, easier to use, still able to wheel around. Possible solution could be a lighter weight metal or polymer or some other design all together. A shower chair that you could wheel into the shower if there is only a tub in the hotel Attach a bracket and slide a chair over to sit in the shower And this was collapsible into a suitcase size THINGS TO LOOK AT Cost Insurance (medicare medicad) Department of vehicle that help to pay for things MICROWAVE He wants to be able to warm things up in the microwave himself and has his own design for this purpose  where  he  is  able  to  reach  into  the  microwave  and  take  the  “basket” To have something hold a plate with a handle 6in high -Needs to not burn his hand when picking up He  isn’t  really  capable  of  operating  a  stove  so  it  is  important  to  have  a  way  to  cook  food DISABILITY Quadrapelegia 4th and 5th vertebrae injury from freak accident after following in bathroom 4th year in college ROTC 20 years ago Got dizzy and fainted after falling Mindset -What’s  next?  What  to  do  now?  With  complete  lifestyle  change -Thinking  you’re  invincible  partying  sports  and  now  you  can’t  move  when  mobility  used  to  be  everything -However he can still think I sometimes thinks he takes his current state for granted He used to drive a van with modifications till it broke -First  few  days  he  didn’t  realize  the  extent  of  his  injuries  and  then  it  finally  hits  him  and  say  well  that  sucks and oh shit -It was more like a new challenge and has to work out and do things differently and goes out ot see how much he can do -Went  form  what  can  I  do?  Not  what  can’t  I  do -At  firs  the  couldn’t  move  his  arms  at  all  and  there  was  a  lot  of  therapy  the  first  6  months  and  learning  to sit up TYPICAL DAY WALKTHROUGH

-Personal care attendant come in wash up medication, bathroom, stretching, get dressed, getting out of bed with transfer device -Get in chair, have something to eat (breakfast), brush my teeth, shaving set his computer up with voice activation to type, track ball instead of a mouse on computer, -Starting a business for doing motivational speaking -Doing a lot of writing to sell those -Develop a personal life coaching program FUSTRATIONS IN DAILY ROUTINE -When voice activation says the wrong words, And it takes so long to correct it -Transportation is really expensive to fix with the modified vehicles. Wants to drive. -The  height  of  things  like  counters  and  tables.  Be  able  to  get  under  things.  Can’t  fit  under  tables  since  he -is kind of a taller guy. Do things like cook and get up to the sink. -Access to things in general. Setting up things in the apartment. -Examples: drawers rolled out smoother, so door system for the cupboards roll out to access, opening up the blinds because he need someone to twist the blinds, locking and opening windows, automatic door opener (he already has), being able to see into a mirror better RELATIONSHIPS WITH ATTENDANTS -It’s  a  group  of  people,  one  person  5  days  in  the  morning,  and  other  2  days -Other that come throughout the day for other things like food, and other general things -Hired and paid by Supportive Services -Person comes in and estimates how much you need(help) and gives you a certain number of hours to fulfill your needs -Stretching, dressing, bathing, bathroom, personal hygiene, cooking meal, cleaning: dusting vacuuming, shopping (sometimes), laundry, basic functions to live and get by -With  the  program  they  are  supposed  to  help  him  with  needs  in  the  home,  so  they  can’t  drive  him  around or really help him with anything outside the house Do you like having attendants? Yea well they are kind of a necessity. He looks to find people that he would get along with but also would be able to fulfill his needs, their personality since you spend 5-6 hours a day with this person. You kind of want to get along with them. You want to find someone that will stay with you a while so things are more streamlined and effective. An effective working relationship. MORE PROBLEMS IN ROUTINE -Access his bags by himself in the sides and whatnot -A lot of things rely on trust, most people are willing to help but things like letting other people pay for stuff for him with his wallet are sometimes a problem. -He goes through life trying not to paranoid because that is no way to live life. -Lesson:  Don’t  put  all  your  cash  in  your  wallet. SAFETY -Getting  around  town,  he  wears  a  chest  strap.  He  isn’t  capable  of  putting  it  on  himself  since  his  balance  is not that great, but if he hits a bump on the sidewalk, without out it he could potentially fall down and become stuck. -Learned the hard way to wear chest strap. He used to see other people use them and thought it was stupid till he fell himself.

-Locks his chair down on the bus and BART. -Story: Was on the bus, when it stopped suddenly and he stood up briefly and then feel face first on the aisle and ended up with tread marks on the face EATING -How can I eat by myself? He sticks a fork in his wristband and brings the fork to his mouth. -This accomplishment meant more independence, and at first he had to get fed -Story:  His  dad  fed  him  the  first  time  in  the  hospital  with  the  bumblebee  and  he  couldn’t  speak  at  the  time since he was on a ventilator, lol and afterwards told his dad if you ever do that again, I will never talk to you again -To his parents he became like a kid again -Mom was like I wish it was me instead of you, you have this whole life ahead of you -Dad  was  upset,  but  what  can  you  do,  can’t  do  anything  now -Family still treats him the same with shit talking, but he just needs more help from them -Independence is always important, especially In college and was brutal to lose all independence WHAT ELSE IS IMPORTANT -Independence, trust -RELATIONSHIPS with girlfriends and friends and family, life is all about relationships -Everything is better with better relationships -One thing he really enjoys a lot is service, giving back to the country POWER SOCCER -Doing a lot through coaching power soccer and translating that to life -A  lot  of  people  with  disabilities  don’t  realize  all  of  the  things they are capable of doing -Try to give them confidence from the court to life You  can’t  do  that  and  you  can’t  do  that,  and  they  get  the  cant  mindset  and  sit  in  front  of  the  TV -This  isn’t  true,  yea  you  can,  You  just  have  to  learn  how.  Strategy  from  court to life -Works with 8-10 years old to 60 years old with all different type of disabilities with boys girls men women -He used to play, but then he became coach after the previous coach retired -Sport transferred to different style -2 time power soccer champion coach -Could potentially play at that level but only with a lot of work TECHNOLOGIES Easy pivot Wrist splints-simple bar through straps with cuff that goes through hand that can hold a pen Driving joystick mechanism, lift to get in van Computer Wheelchair Longer straw Table from ikea that has legs to extend to different lengths Rehab: took an old bedside table that he could raise and lower to different heights for personal care attendant or for him: adjustable Door opener Ramp to get in door: 6in ramp Racer switches for light switches to make it easier

Patio door, he put a handle with a strap to patio door Unlocks door with a chopstick Pill  box,  push  a  button  on  the  side  and  pull  out,  to  put  in  bag  so  it  doesn’t  spill  but  it’s  harder  to  open Lap tray, tray with a cushion underneath (handiest ever) Trackball on computer Headset for the phone. Phone on the chest strap, CLOSING THOUGHTS When thinking of a robot , he thinks of irobot, some autonomous robot that is capable of doing manual work R2d2 might not be able to do a whole lot for him, incapable of stretching his legs, get him out of bed. Like getting the pillbox out of bag and opening it requires fine motor skills. Some type of machine to stretch his legs Stretching is exercise for him Another device he used to use , needed 1-2 people that helped me to stand, to help with the blood flow and bone density Anything with injury, first thing to do is start walking. Have the body be able to sit upright and be dizzy and  acclimated  and  it’s  this  movement that really keeps the body healthy Chinese medicine to keep the body moving, move the arms and bend the knees while just waiting around Reliability  is  key,  if  you  can’t  get  in  and  out  of  bed  you’re  screwed,  can’t  go  anywhere I can eat in bed, but he still needs someone to feed me, you need someone there Lonely without company with attendants Get people to come to you, but you have to make the effort KEY POINT ROBOTS ARE REALLY INCAPABLE OF FINE MOTOR MOVEMENTS RIGHT NOW

2.24.13 Dr. Park Interview (Medical Doctor)

Statement

“For  those  who  have  chronic  medical  needs  but  don’t  need  hospitals  and  IV  antibiotics” “Hospitals  are  very  expensive” “  babies…  can’t  breathe  on  their  own.  They  have  to be hooked up to a machine with regular visits from  nurses” “…foot  is  amputated  because  they  suffer  an  infection after stepping on something. A robot that replaces their foot or even help them adjust to their new lifestyle can be something that can support  them” “a  robot  that  figures  out  when  to deliver the medication will be extremely beneficial to the patient” “I  would  like  to  know  whether  my  patient  has  taken his/her pill three times a day like I instructed them to do, or whether they did their physical therapy” “The  nose,  mouth,  and  urinary areas are sometimes  difficult  to  reach  and  see”

Needs

Product provides chronic medical need support Product is cheap and easily accessible Product is reliable and is fully functioning 24/7 Product helps patient adjust to new lifestyle Product records schedule or blood level to determine when to supply medication Product provides feedback to doctor or hospital Product  is  able  to  see  all  areas  of  the  patient’s  body

Reflection

This interview was the first interview that I did for this project. Before it began, I made a list of questions I believed that I would go through; however, this was not the case. Based on the responses I’ve  received  I  began  to  ask  questions  that  were  not  on the list. In a way, this helped improve the flow of the interview and made the whole process more emotional and less engineered. I realized midway through the interview to take advantage of using open ended questions and use the responses I got to further divulge and expand the interview. Not only did this improve the flow of the interview, but I was also able to get a better understanding of the issues and needs of medical personnel and patients. Looking back I should have done the interview via Skype instead of on the phone. The issue with doing an  interview  over  the  phone  is  the  lack  of  emotional  connection  between  me  and  Joe.  I  could’ve  gotten  a better understanding or feeling from Joe about some of the issues he deals with. I also learned that a one person interview is not very ideal. Having to record and conduct the interview at the same time is

really difficult. There were instances where there were long pauses in between the responses and questions because of me recording the responses and on numerous occasions I had to have Joe repeats some  of  his  responses.  Overall,  I’m  pleased  with  this  interview.  We  definitely  added  a  different  perspective on the user needs.

Interview Transcript (Note some responses are summaries of what was actually stated)

Q: What does home health care mean to you? A:  Home  health  care  is  for  those  who  have  chronic  medical  needs  but  don’t  need  hospitals  and  IV  antibiotics. Hospitals are very expensive and home health care can be a cheaper alternative to it. Q: In pediatrics where do you find a need for home health care? A:  Well  a  lot  of  the  patients  I  deal  with  don’t  have  critical  illnesses  or  need  constant  hospital  care,  so  let  me get back to you on that. Q:  So  I’m  working  on  finding  applications  where  tensegrity  soft  robots can play a role in home health care. In what instances would soft robots or any robot would you find helpful to you, nurses, patients, or anyone else affiliated in the home health industry? A: When babies are born prematurely or undergo trauma, sometimes  they  can’t  breathe  on  their  own.  They have to be hooked up to a machine with regular visits from nurses. Maybe the robot can provide constant surveillance on the babies. Q: How about outside the hospital? A: Maybe helping out the permanently disabled. For example, people with diabetes sometimes lose feeling at their feet. There are instances their foot is amputated because they suffer an infection after stepping on something. A robot that replaces their foot or even help them adjust to their new lifestyle can be something that can support them. Q: What are some things that you see a robot providing for a user/patient? A: I can think of three things: service, mobility assistance, and medication. Q: Can you be more specific about service regarding medication? A: For example, there are insulin pumps that learn when to supply insulin. Initially the user manually supplies the insulin, but the pump will learn when to supply the medication automatically. Something similar but with other diseases, such as HIV, can potentially help a patient. There are also drugs that that are most effective at certain blood levels. Having a robot that figures out when to deliver the medication will be extremely beneficial to the patient. Q: What about assisting you or any other medical personal? A: Not sure. Maybe something like biofeedback. There are prostheses out there that move on based on nerve signals. Something similar to this feature, but gives doctors information instead. For example, I would like to know whether my patient has taken his/her pill three times a day like I instructed them to do, or whether they did their physical therapy. Q: What are some of the most common type of issues you see in your patients? A: In acute care, the cold is something very common. In chronic care, diabetes is something I deal with quite often.

Q: Are there any physical challenges you encounter when treating a patient? A: The nose, mouth, and urinary areas are sometimes difficult to reach and see. We have specialty doctors who we will call to deal with these issues. Q:  I  was  just  curious  if  there  was  something  that  a  patient  might  go  to  a  hospital  for,  but  really  don’t  need to? A: Yes, for drug rehabilitation. There are legal reasons why they have to come to the hospital, but let say someone addicted heroin is going through rehab. The hospital would supply certain dosages of medication similar to heroin in small quantities, once a week. This is done so that the individual addicted to heroin can slowly lose their dependency to the drug.

Meeting With Adrian in the BEST LAb

February 25th, 2013

Statement

Tensegrity structures are very good at being in contact with things

Very robust, extremely difficult to damage tensegrity

Forces are distributed No joint is fixed Rods of tensegrity robots are

joined by cables Instead of amplifying forces, the

forces are deamplified thus requiring less power

Compliant Little movement at the cables will

have a large effect on the displacements of the rods

All forces are axial Actuators changes cable lengths only

10% change in cable lengths can have a significant effect on the rod movement

Collapsible – can have the ability to vary in size. Can have size varying from the size of a backpack to a small room

Robust – tensegrity like structure allows the robot to withstand sudden introduction of forces

Things to consider: What do we want to sense? What will it look like? Will it be able to communicate? Is it going to replace the human

element, the caregiver? 4 factors:

Motion Sensing Communication Manipulation

Analysis

When Adrian stated that tensegrity structure are very good at being in contact with things, he meant that due to its soft nature, tensegrity structures can interact with anything object without damaging them. Tensegrity soft structures are inherently robust. Due to the elastic nature of the cables and the way the forces are distributed along the rods and cables, tensegrity robots can withstand considerable amount of sudden applied force. The design of a tensegrity structure (none of the joints are fixed and rods are joined by cables) allows it to absorb a lot of impact. The tensegrity robots are able to vary in size so easily because very minimal changes in cable length have a considerable effect on the  rod’s  movements and the overall volume that the parts of the robot occupy is also very small. Things we have to consider when designing and building a tensegrity structure is the motion of the robot, the elements that the robot is going to sense, the communication between the actuators and the controller, and the manipulation of the tensegrity structure

Reflection

Adrian, a NASA scientist working on tensegrity robotics, was kind enough to visit Berkeley and briefly explain to us what tensegrity robotics was. Because tensegrity soft robotics is a relatively new field in robotics, we had a lot of questions about them. Some of the things we needed clarification and understanding on were the pros of tensegrity soft robots and what distinguished this type of robotics with conventional ones. Going into this interview, we have a lot of different ideas for potential products in home health care, but all of our ideas seem to be easily solved by conventional robotics. What we needed to get out of this interview was figure out some of the favorable characteristics of tensegrity soft robotics and design a product that revolves around this information.

From this interview, we were able to get a lot of facts about tensegrity soft robotics and some of advantages they had over conventional ones. Some of the things that we learned and can use were that tensegrity soft robotics are very robust and can easily change size. A lot of our ideas were small scale, but one of the ideas that grew out of this interview was potentially changing the scale of the robot by considering a tensegrity structure that is twice the size of a human being.

Overall,  we  got  a  better  understanding  of  tensegrity  soft  robotics,  but  we’re  still  somewhat  clueless as to what our product is going to be. Two things that we can focus on are potentially designing a product that resembles a ball or snake, because these two design was something that NASA found most success with. In general though, we still need to gather more feedback about home health care and some of the problems surrounding it to implement some of the information we learned at the interview.

Interview Write-up: Medical Supply Store

2.25.12

Johnson Medical Supply

Goals for Interview:

We wanted to look at existing products and ask the store staff what were common features patients looked for in products.

Johnson Medical Supplies:

First impressions:

Wide automatically opening door and a ramp leading up to the store. Inside a large selection of products.

Types of Products:

Walkers Canes, quad canes, foldable canes Power seat patient lift wheel chairs scooters exercise products daily living aids mobility table bed and seating products

Walkers: (Price $200-400)

adjustable seat height and handles brakes foldable seat 12 lbs total weight modular - parts are removable accessories: cup holder, seat pad, tray 8'' wheels for indoor/outdoor use "quiet"

Advertising terms: light, small size, ergonomic: contoured handles & brake levers

"folds flat for transportation"

"warranty"

"Promotes better posture"

Shower Stools and Chairs - ($ 50-150)

Chairs ($800-1300)

- "Attractive, easy to maintain"

- Strength, durability, steel

- handle extender

Power Chairs ($5000 or $550/month rental)

Power Patient Lifter ($2,500)

- "quiet, smooth operation to reduce patient anxiety"

- emergency stop

- comfortable

Scooters ($1500-2500)

- baskets

- lights

- large tire diameter

* All products also mentioned weight capacity

Reflection

Johnson Medical Supply store was ironically a very difficult place for anyone with disabilities to navigate. It was stuffed full of all sorts of products, which overflowed into the isles of the store. First, we simply looked at the medical products they sell to get a general idea for what types of products are currently on the market. Then we asked the store employees a little about the types of products people wanted.

We were surprised at the high cost of very simple products like shower chairs and walkers. The very industrial appearance of many of the products was far different than products in any other store, especially considering the price.

Paul Hippolitus, DSP Director needs of and services for disabled students

February 26, 2013

Statement

Need

“DSP  provides  as  much  aid  as  possible  while  ensuring the essential nature of classes is kept intact”

Product provides aid while keeping the core experience intact.

“Some  students  are unable to process a lecture at full speed so we have others take notes for them or  use  a  tool  like  live  scribe  to  help  them”

Product  enhances  students’  ability  to  process  lectures.

“Some  students  are  hearing  impaired  and  require  the use of a caption cart, which captions the lecture  with  a  four  to  five  second  delay”

Product helps enhance or replace missing or damaged sensory functions.

“students  have  a  difficult  time  in  the  chaos  of  a  discussion”

Product assists users in complex and dynamic situations.

“Elevators  are  too  small  for  students  to  fit  in  with  their  wheelchairs’

Product enables students to transfer between floors.

“The  hills  of  Berkeley’s  campus  are  too  steep  for  manual  wheelchairs”

Product provides mobility to user.

“Students  are  often stuck during emergency events”

Product help user in event of emergency.

“Students  do  not  get  sufficient  social  interaction”

Product serves to enhance user social life.

“nothing  for  me  without  me” Product must be designed with disabled input at every step.

Reflection

When Seth and I (John) first began this interview it started with a lot of background on disability legislation. While the names, dates, and politics behind the legislation were unimportant, some of the ideas from the legislation showed us new avenues for the design and analysis of our co-robot. The idea of maintaining the essential nature of the activity, as articulated in the Americans with Disabilities Act is an inspiration to aid our users while maintaining the essential nature of their lives.

The greatest nugget of information  we  got  out  of  this  interview  was  the  concept  of  “nothing  for  me  without  me.”    We  knew  from  the  beginning  that  this  project  would  require  us  to  carefully  study  our  users in order to meet their needs. What we were not thinking as much about though was bringing our users  into  every  step  of  the  design.    If  we  are  able  to  do  this  it  will  greatly  increase  our  project’s  chances  

of fulfilling their needs. Moving forward we will try to keep potential users in the design loop as much as possible so that we can incorporate their knowledge and experience into the design.

I learned how important it is to review an interview several times and dissect each response fully.    In  the  interview,  the  value  of  the  “nothing  for  me  without  me”  concept  was  something  I  picked up on  almost  immediately.    However  the  idea  of  “essential  nature”  was  not  something  that  I  thought  of  until I went back and carefully reviewed the transcript.

Interview Transcript

Partial transcript of notes taken while doing the interview:

Q: Can you provide us with a little background on the creation and evolution of the DSP?

In  the  mid  80’s  the  access  board  was  created  at  a  federal  level  to  implement  non-discrimination laws. Over the years the laws have increased their complexity and coverage. The ADA act requires that all government agencies provide accessibility. This led directly to the creation of the DSP to assist disabled  students  at  UC  Berkeley.    One  example  of  the  access  board’s  work  is  that  all  websites  are  arranged in JAWS readable type. This enables blind people to use the internet.

Q: What are some of the challenges you face in providing assistance to students.

ADA requires that professors provide any aid so long as it does not change the essential nature of the class. This leads at times to a debate between academic freedom and non-discrimination. The concept of essential nature is also difficult to define. For example students with dyscalcula cannot use a calculator on nursing tests, because it is essential that nurses do mental math on the spot.

Q: What are some of the common services you provide?

The assistance that each student requires is unique. With that in mind some of our more common services are note taking, because the students have difficulty processing full speed. We also use live scribe pens to allow students to play back over the lecture. For the hearing impaired we provide a caption cart so that they can read the professors lecture in real time, but it has a four to five second delay. Our students especially have difficulty during class discussions because of the chaos in the classroom.    If  they  can’t  hear  or  speak  well  they  are  unlikely  to  get  the  whole  discussion  experience.    We  focus on addressing functional limitations, using accommodations unique to each user and situation.

We also address the fact that the Berkeley campus is located on a hill, many students arrive with manual wheelchairs, but they all receive power chairs. Also the average age of campus elevators is 50 years and many of them are too small to accommodate disabled students, but they are very expensive to replace.

Q: What are some problems that disabled students have that you feel are not being adequately addressed?

Emergency evacuation plans are difficult. Students in wheelchairs have been carried over stairs by the flow of people. We have attempted to give all students with wheelchairs walkie-talkies so they can talk with rescue personal. The problem is the batteries can die or the students might leave their walkie-talkies at home. Students who drive to campus lack sufficient parking. UC Berkeley as a whole has a parking problem and the disabled spaces are only mandated at a ratio that leaves us with insufficient spaces. Another key issue for our disabled students is social interaction. Sometimes they come talk to me  just  because  they  don’t  really  know  anyone  else.    I  feel  like  disabled  students  are  often  ignored  by  the non-disabled for fear of offending them our doing something wrong, but this just makes them more isolated. Several disabled students have left UC Berkeley because they felt to alone.

Do you have any additional comments?

First, I feel like we have difficulty serving our Grad student population. Four percent of undergraduates are registered with the DSP versus less than two percent of graduates. I think that there are a number of  factors  such  as  additional  pressure  and  a  reluctance  to  ask  for  “special  allowances,”  but  I  still  want  to  be able to provide the services that these students need. Also and most importantly in your project remember  that  any  design  for  the  disabled  must  be  an  interactive  process,  “nothing  with  me  without  me.”

3.3.13

Audrey Wu: BioEngineering Student

Introduction I interviewed an old family friend of mine, Audrey Wu. She is a junior in BioEngineering, who has a rare blood condition which requires biweekly hospital visits. Some of her biggest concerns were the impact that her condition has on the rest of her family, and the coldness of the healthcare professionals during the stay in the hospital. User Needs Emotional security from financial burden placed on family Energy to continue relationship with friends and family Emotional connection with doctors and nurses without compromising their jobs Loneliness in the hospital Pain of using needles Reflection and Lessons Learned

After conducting an interview with a partner as the transcriber of the pair and attempting to do this interview myself, I realized how much less information I got in the entire process. The pace of the interview was much slower than the other interview and I realized my phone’s  audio  recorder  was  not  good  enough  to  catch  much  of  the  interview  at  all,  so  I  was  incapable of going back to retake some more notes on the entire interview exchange.

Also, because of the overall slower pace compared to the interview I had as a pair, there was less information to collect overall and there were some awkward pauses in the process where I had to tell Audrey to wait for me before she continued talking so I could catch up with the notes. This seemed to make her lose her train of thought a couple of times and I had to prompt her on what she was talking about prior to the pause. This caused the interview process to be much choppier than expected and I found I had to go back to written down question more often than thinking of follow-up question organically.

I ran out of question at the end and unfortunately that is how the interview ended, so next time I will have to plan and write down more questions to keep the interview going.

My process for this interview was that I hypothesized Audrey would have less to talk about the physical medical technology part of having her specific condition of anemia and more to talk about the emotional problems of her medical condition. This is why I tried to focus more on the emotional side and determine the emotional needs that she needed fulfilled because of her medical condition.

As the interview progressed I saw that her main concern that she seemed to feel was in fact her relationships and not her physical needs that needed to be fulfilled because she really did not interact with too many medical equipment. This was mainly because she could function by herself normally 99% of the time without any assistance from other people during her daily routine. It was only the hospital visits that were holding her back and her physique because she

ran out of energy some weeks during her recovery. Her main concern specifically was her family and friends.

Unfortunately this interview did not produce as much as the other interviewees who had more severe physical handicaps. Many of the emotions Audrey felt were to be expected and there were no real insights that varied too much from that of the other interviews. The user needs that were collected in this interview were merely emotional ones since she had practically no experience with medical equipment or technology used with handicapped people.

Interview Transcript [Audrey Wu] Partial transcript of notes taken while doing the interview. Note: some lines are just summaries of what was actually said. Q. What is the worst part of the hospital experience? I  would  definitely  say  the  cost  of  being  at  the  hospital,  but  I  guess  that  isn’t  a  tangible  worst  part of the hospital, but that definitely follows you around for the rest of your daily routine, the constant weight of knowing your family has to pay for these hospital visit for me. But  in  terms  of  the  actual  hospital,  I  really  don’t  enjoy  the  loneliness  during  the  biweekly  visits  there. Sitting there for hours on end by yourself without anyone to talk to sometimes is the worst and you just count the hours with television shows. The shows just go on and on and you just  kind  of  blankly  stare  because  you  really  don’t  want  to  watch  the  shows,  you  just want it to be over and go home. It is nice when mom or dad or my sister stays with me, but they generally have  things  to  do  during  the  day  and  they  can’t  sit  there  with  me  all  day  talking  to  me. Q. Could you also go into some other unpleasant experiences you have experienced at the hospital? The doctors have this fake initial kindness when they first meet you to try and calm you down on the whole situation, but as you get accustomed to them, you realize that they really have much attachment to their patients. I guess this is supposed to be part of their job, to not get  emotionally  attached,  but  it’s  just  an  unpleasant  feeling  to  put  your  life  in  their  hands  and  they  don’t  seem  to  have  any  investment  in  you  getting  better.  Or  at  least  they  don’t  show  it. Q. What is the best part of the hospital experience? I  wouldn’t  say  any  part  of  being  in  the  hospital  is  the  “best,”  but  every  once  in  a  while  a  nurse  comes in that actually seems to care and it is always nice to experience those types of people. The only problem with this is that nurses are fickle and they change constantly, at least for me, for each visit. So some visits to the hospital for the blood transfusion are much worse than others. Q. What are just some of the emotions you have felt through this entire experience?

Initially it was a self-pity, and I used to think that was the strongest emotion I felt and the constant  asking  to  myself,  “Why  me?”  But  now  I  know  that  it’s  not  the  emotions  for  myself, but for my family and my friends, that make me feel the worst about this disease. It is the financial guilt and guilt of not having enough energy to dance or have adventures with my friends or not being able to hang out with my friends at all on the weekend because I have to go home to Freemont and go to my  biweekly  schedule  hospital  visit.  It’s  these  things  that  hit  me the hardest. Q. Could you elaborate on the feelings of guilt on your family? The  financial  burden  is  so  much.  My  family  definitely  is  not  rich,  actually  we  don’t  even  make  50k for our total  family  household  income  so  it’s  hard  to  essentially  force  these  bills  on  my  parents  and  even  though  I  have  talked  to  them  about  the  bills,  they  continue  to  say  that  it’s  no  burden  that  my  health  comes  above  all  else,  but  it’s  just  hard  to  believe  and it weighs on me all the time. Not only that, the independence I gained the first semester of college was amazing and I felt like I finally left home, only to have to come back home again and have my parents drive me to and back from the hospital on the weekends. This was an unfortunate change for me Q. Could you tell me about some of the technologies that you used at the hospital? I  can’t  say  too  much  on  this,  because  I  don’t  really  use  too  much.  Initially  I  had  some  blood  work done when I initially went to  the  hospital  just  for  being  sick  and  low  on  energy  and  that’s  where they diagnosed me. Yea they just did a lot of blood work, diagnosed me and told me that I had to come in every 2 weeks to get my levels tested and see how I was doing and to regulate my blood levels. Q. Can you talk about some of the medical equipment you found unpleasing? I  really  don’t  enjoy  needles,  but  I  eventually  kind  of  got  a  little  desensitized  to  the  entire  needle  in arm thing, but I still really do not enjoy it. There are some cool tricks that some nurses do some  it  doesn’t  sting,  but  not  all  of  them  do  it.

3.4.13 Kie Fuji Interview

Interview Transcript Q: Could you go through your daily routine? At 6 in the morning wake up, my attendant stretches my legs and arms for an hour She helps me change clothes and with my personal hygiene routine. She then transfers me from the bed to the chair and helps me get my food ready which I eat in my room. I get my books and papers that I printed in my backpack. My attendant helps me from 6-7:30 am and then I have classes from 8-12. Then the 2nd attendant comes to help me get food afterwards. Twice a week I work out at Pleasanton for 2 hours each. Q: Could you talk about your attendant schedule? She has 4 different attendants She preps dinner. Because  of  her  physical  limitation  she  can’t  write,  so  she  has  homework  scribes. She goes to club meeting 7-8. Other days she goes to study groups. She has a morning attendant, one on the weekday and one on the weekend, same for lunch Night attendant works every day. She gets stretched for an hour at night because her muscles tightened up. Someone comes in once during the night because she sleeps on one side and she gets pressure sores and they roll her over. Q: What are some difficulties on campus? Can’t  press  elevator  buttons.  Needs  to  ask  random  people  to  press  buttons  for  her The building in SLC has a good elevator that has regular elevator and you can hit it with the chair since big and lower The door opener has the top switch but not the bottom one The sign walks for when pressing it is hard There are cracks on the sidewalk and the wires of her wheelchair got stuck once LeConte, says there is an accessible area here, but there were stairs, and sometimes the signs are misleading and she had to go around the building. Same problem for wheeler. Has to take 2 elevators and has a roundabout way to get into buildings. She did get a radio from the director, she uses her cellphone in cases of emergency, so she doesn’t  carry  the  radio  around  since its useless to her. Got  hit  by  a  car  one  time.  People  in  cars  don’t  see  her  since  she  was  so  low  while  she  was  backing up. WERE YOU BY YOURSELF WHEN YOU WERE HIT? WHAT DID YOU DO IN THAT TYPE OF SITUATION? People just helped her. In dorms she has the Cal id card and she can scan it to open the door to open the ground floor door. It would be better if she could do that for other doors on campus. It would be more convenient.

Benefit of having a lot of people on campus. There are always people to help out. She once was going down a hill and had a muscle spasm and fell and landed on the joystick. WAS A NIGHTMARE. Really bad sidewalks and hills in Berkeley. Her chair has broken 3 times. Her chair broke down dead week and had her attendant push her around. She wishes they had spare power chairs at DSP for these situations. The motor usually breaks. When  it’s  raining  outside  she  needs  to  wear  a  poncho  because  she  can’t  get  the  joystick  wet  and  she  can’t  get  the  poncho  stuck  in  the  wheels. Q: Could you list off some technologies you use? -For  homework  or  when  she  is  emailing  people,  so  she  just  speaks  into  a  microphone,  but  it’s  a  problem for stuff like chemistry. -Hand strap has a hole to feed herself. -A  lot  of  tables  aren’t  adjustable  so  she  has  to  sit  at the end of the table -For organic chemistry she was talking the full 2-3 hours during the final. -Problems  with  iclickers.  She  couldn’t  press  the  buttons.  There  is  an  app  that  can  be  used  as  an  iclicker for her iPhone. -She  doesn’t  take  much  medication.  No  pain,  but  a  lot  of  spinal  cord  injury  patients’  use  it  to  reduce the amount of pain they feel. The problem she has is when the day changes her body can’t  regulate  its  own  temperature  as  well  because  of  her  disability.  A  nebulizer- put medicine inside (like  an  inhaler  with  a  mask)  and  it’s  supposed  to  open  up  your  lungs  and  cough  up  all  the  mucus. Q: What are some of the emotions you felt during and after the accident? It was caused by a car accident May of 2002, 11 years ago. I used to be a really avid runner and go to junior Olympics and did gymnastics, track and field, dance. It was very difficult transition. I  was  very  confused  with  the  doctor  terminology.  I  was  9  and  didn’t  really  know  what  was  happening, but I did know it was a severe injury because whenever friends and family members would  look  at  me  and  they  would  start  crying.    It  never  occur  to  me  that  I  couldn’t  move  and  I  would ask my mom when I could walk and she would always say in a month. But when I got older it started to hit me more. I was  sad  a  lot  in  high  school.  Elementary  school  wasn’t  too  bad  since people knew me before the accident, but the moving from Georgia to California I had trouble making friends. STORY: In 8th grade,  a  girl  said  to  me,  “Oh  I  didn’t  know  you  could  read  and  write.”  Even  when  I  went to japan, people would just stare at me. Disabled people are less culturally accepted outside of the US. It’s  hard  when  the  doctors  tell  me  to  give  up  on  walking.  They  would  look  at  MRI  and  situation  and tell my parents why they are wasting money to go to Project Walk. They think its false advertisement  which  isn’t  true  because  there  are  so  many  clients  that  have  gone  from  not  being able to walk at all to using crutches.

Q: What was a main fear of yours that happened from your disability? I am scared that my physical limitation will affect me from getting a job that I want in the future. I want to be a radiologist. Radiology was influenced by my accident. I looked up to these  nurses  and  doctors,  but  I  obviously  can’t  be  a  surgeon  or  a pediatrician and radiology would be the most realistic field for me since they analyze images. When I finally shadowed a radiologist he used drag and drop and used a microphone to diagnose and these are all things that I can do even with my disability. Reflection Kie Fuji is a quadriplegic sophomore student of UC Berkeley. We scheduled the interview through my contact with Kie as a student of my high school. She had her accident when she was 9 in a freak car accident that left her disabled and unable to move any of her limbs. Through the years however, she has regained some of her ability to move her arms and her  hand.  Her  dexterity  and  ability  to  move  these  limbs  is  still  a  far  cry  from  an  abled  person’s  ability. The  main  differences  with  Kie’s  life  compared to that of the normal student are her very scheduled life. There is not too much leeway in terms of her schedule. She has a very set schedule with her attendants that come every single day to get her ready for the day and get her ready to go back to sleep. She also needs her attendants to stretch her along with her scheduled stretching session at a physical therapy center. Again, like many of the other disabled people we have interviewed, independence was her biggest concern in her story after she had  come  to  terms  with  her  accident  and  her  disabilities.  She  didn’t  discuss  too  many  issue  with the fact of dignity aside form that fact that she has to ask for help a lot with things like reaching and pressing elevator buttons because she is not elevated high  enough  or  doesn’t  have the arm strength to press the button sufficiently to operate the elevator. She says this can be  embarrassing  and  difficult  when  attending  her  8am  class  when  there  aren’t  too  many  people to ask for help. The expenses of her mobility also remained an issue with her especially with the hills that are everywhere around the Berkeley campus. Kie has already gone through 3 power wheelchairs which cost a lot to repair and replace. Each chair averages 5000 dollars. Also stretching requires at least hour of work for her attendants everyday not including her extra physical therapy sessions. The stretching usually happens once in the morning and once at night. Independently taking care of herself was an important need and if not being able to, being able to trust the caretakers was essential since in the transition from high school to college, Kie had to change from letting her mother and father take care of her to alternate caretakers that are paid.

User Needs

Statement

Issues with her life She has homework scribes She has 4 attendants that come in

and out depending on the day and time of day

It is difficult for her to take tests on subjects like organic chemistry

She is afraid of not being able to do what she wants. Her job capabilities in the future are very limited because of this accident.

Campus design features need to be more sensitive to wheelchair students

The elevator buttons are too high; they need to be lowered like the ones in the dorms.

The hills of Berkeley and sidewalks are very tough on power wheelchairs. They strain the motor, either better sidewalks or better, stronger wheelchairs need to be made.

Sidewalk cracks get her wheelchair wheels stuck.

Doors  don’t  open  with  her  CalID  like in the dorms. This would make mobility on campus much simpler  since  she  can’t  open  the  doors herself.

There is no real solution for rainy days aside from wearing a poncho since  her  wheelchair  can’t  get  wet  otherwise it would break.

Emotions during the process Initially she did not know how to

feel about the accident, but as she came to realization of what she was capable of she fell into a period of depressions where it was hard for her to communicate with people.

Her mother used to tell her that she would be all better within a

Analysis

The transition from her parents to caretakers taking care of her was difficult because of the trust that was involved is performing such intimate tasks. Independence and more sensitivity to the trials and tribulations of students in wheelchairs on campus were greatly wanted by Kie. There were many issues here that she described. There were many notes on how her stretching was one of the biggest if not the biggest thing for her physical therapy. To keep blood running through her body was extremely important. She had some ideas on how to make this better. It is hard to communicate people and hold dates and  whatnot  because  of  her  disability.  She  doesn’t  see too many people because of her mobility issues and mainly stays by herself seeing her friends every once in a while. Loneliness is a main issue. If it was easier to set up social meetings it would be better.

month, but it never came and she eventually came to realize it was a false promise.

She not has come to accept it and feels much better about it. She knows her disability and realizes how it will and has affected her life. She is sad sometimes, but usually is fine. Life is lonely sometimes.

3.6.13

Mark (Volunteer at Ashby Village)

Statement “Many  seniors  are  frustrated  about  their  physical mobility  and  lack  of  independence” “Keyboards  and  touch  screens  are  a  challenge.  Some elderly people with arthritis use their knuckles to type and find it almost impossible to type  on  iPads/iPhones  or  other  touch  screens” “One  older  woman  who  had macular degeneration had a large electric book reader. Since  her  eyesight  was  very  poor,  she  couldn’t  read books anymore so she needed a machine that enlarged the text many times its normal size onto  a  TV  screen.” “They  are  very  grateful.  Many  are  also  frustrated that they need someone to come help them with simple tasks they used to be able to do on their own,  but  everyone  is  still  grateful.” “Almost  everything  in  Johnson’s  Medical  Supply  store needs to be redesigned. The wheel chairs and other products look like they are from the 1940s and they are all a bland, industrial color. Also,  they  are  very  very  expensive.”

Needs

Product increases mobility Product has simple interface with large buttons or other simple user inputs. Product is accessible to users with poor eyesight. Product use allows the user to retain their dignity. Product is attractive. Product is affordable.

Reflection:

Mark was happy to talk to us and shared many of his thoughts and observations from his volunteer work. This made the interview very conversational instead of a list of questions, which was great. I think this allowed us to better understand what he thought was important since our list of questions did not dictate the interview. In this conversational setting we gathered a significant amount of  knowledge  that  our  list  of  questions  would  not  have  elicited.  For  example,  Mark’s  discussion  of  his  own health care insurance and his observations of the different types of senior living arrangements were new to us.

We were very fortunate that Mark had product design experience as well as his experience volunteering with seniors. The interview was set up before we knew his career was in product design, so that was great surprise. He was adamant about redesigning a current product instead of trying to invent a robotic system. This gave us practice with our interviewing skills since we had to collect information about the applications of robotics, without asking any robot-specific questions.

Overall it was a successful interview, and one in which I better followed the interviewing guidelines than in my previous two interviews.

Transcript:

Can you tell us a little about yourself? How did you become involved with Ashby Village?

Mark works as an industrial and graphic designer. He became involved with Ashby Village when an elderly  neighbor  told  him  about  it.  He  said,  “Everyone  has  an  excuse  to  be  busy,”  but  he  feels  that  volunteering is important.

Tell us about Ashby Village. How do you join? Is  there  a  membership  fee?  Etc…

Ashby Village is a community of elderly people who are living at home, but have access to a volunteer network. Volunteers help seniors with a large variety of tasks and organize group activities and classes for the seniors. Ashby Village has a membership fee of $1000 per year. Some of that covers the administrative costs, but admin costs are very low – there is only one full time and one part time paid employee – everything else is run by volunteers.

What types of volunteer activities have you done with Ashby Village?

Mark has taught an iPad class to seniors in Ashby village. He has also done housework or yard work. Little projects like replacing light bulbs or helping someone set up a book reading machine. The types of  volunteering  that  are  most  need  include  driving  elderly  to  doctors’  appointments  …  The  village  provides a social group and a support group to individuals who often start to feel isolated living in their homes.

or gardening.

How do the elderly feel about having someone come to their home to help them?

They are very grateful. Many are also frustrated that they need someone to come help them with simple tasks they used to be able to do on their own, but everyone is still grateful.

What are some of the more common problems seniors face?

- Frustration over physical mobility and lack of independence

- Can no longer drive

- Can’t  walk  up  stairs  in  their  own  home,  so  many  elderly  have  stopped  using  half  of  their  house.

Solutions: - Cut  curbs  in  the  US  have  helped  mobility.  In  other  countries  you  don’t  see  disabled people walking around in public unassisted.

Product Design Perspectives:

We asked Mark for specific examples of things the elderly had a hard time using and specific things that worked well.

Elderly Issues/ Solutions:

Dexterity issues:

Keyboards and touch screens are a challenge. Some elderly people with arthritis use their knuckles to type and find it almost impossible to type on iPads/iPhones or other touch screens.

Key-less Entry:

Example: Prius – The Prius has key-less entry to the car doors. Also, the car has a keyless start. If the key is in the car, the user only has to press a large button to start the car. This is very convenient for elderly as well as other users.

You  said  driving  elderly  to  doctors’  appointments  was  a  very  common  and  highly needed volunteer activity. Can you elaborate on the issues elderly face in getting to a health-care provider? Have you seen any good solutions?

I personally can email my doctor since I have Kaiser Permanente health insurance. That has saved me a number  of  trips  into  the  doctor’s  office.  I  have  self-diagnosed a problem, then emailed my doctor. They have electronic health records and healthy life-style programs. In the future I see more health care providers adding electronic options so patients, and especially  older  patients  don’t  have  to  make  a  trip  to a doctors office as frequently.

What sorts of products to elderly use to help them remain in their home?

One older woman who had macular degeneration had a large electric book reader. Since her eyesight was  very  poor,  she  couldn’t  read  books  anymore  so  she  needed  a  machine  that  enlarged  the  text  many  times its normal size onto a TV screen. Unfortunately, the company she purchased it from left it on the floor  and  she  couldn’t  pick  it  up  and  move  it  to  a  table where she could use it.

Other products I have seen are the grabber tools. People use them to pick things up off the floor  since  they  can’t  easily  bend  over.  They  are  also  good  for  grabbing  certain  things  off  shelves.  

What do you think about products that are currently on the market?

Almost  everything  in  Johnson’s  Medical  Supply  store  needs  to  be  redesigned.  The  wheel  chairs  and  other products look like they are from the 1940s and they are all a bland, industrial color. Also, they are very very expensive.

I had to help my mother add a basket to her walker and fit tennis balls on the end of the walker. It is amazing that it was so much of a hassle to use the product for what it was intended for and to have paid so much for it.

Do you have any other thoughts about elderly and in-home living?

Ashby Village enables many seniors in Berkeley to remain in there home longer than they would  have,  but  it  isn’t  a  solution  that  would  work  in  many  communities.  Berkeley  is  unique  in  that  most of the elderly are fairly well off and have their homes paid off. Also, there are plenty of people willing to volunteer.

In  other  places  senior  living  condos  might  be  the  only  option  before  assisted  living.  But  I  don’t  think those are a very good option. They are extremely expensive and neither the living space or the food is very good. One need for the elderly is the general living environment needs to be re-thought. There should be a more contemporary living option with better food.

I would recommend you check out OXO. They are a great example of a company that redesigned a common product into something that can be used by elderly and young people alike. I would recommend you try to redesign a poorly designed product instead of inventing something entirely new in one semester.

Additionally, our project involves studying the applications of robotics in healthcare. Do you have any thoughts on the use of robots in healthcare? Would you be comfortable with a robot providing you healthcare?

I  don’t  know…  I  feel  like  that  is  pretty  far  in  the  future.  I  read  an  interesting article in WIRED about a new type of robotics that learn by repeating an action people show them. I think the future is very interesting,  but  I  don’t  know  how  they  could  be  applied  now.  

Mark asked us: Would you use a Roomba vacuum cleaner? We said no because we were physically fit and would rather pay for better cleaning power instead of a robot.

3.8.13

Cheryl Crane’s  Home  Health  Care  Needs

Statement “Home  health  care  is  providing  for  those  who  aren’t  so  independent” “make  the  lives  of  seniors  easier” “I  found  using  the  key  very  difficult” “I  found  it  odd  that  they  had  these  automatic  faucet and soap dispensers. But I now think they are  so  smart” “Stairs  are  usually  not  recommended  because  a  lot  of  falls  occur  them” “danger  of  slipping or falling in the shower is something that needs to be addressed more often” “It  changes  their  attitude  about  life.” “To  us  it’s  a  way  of  communicating.” “Seniors  are  reluctant  to  modify  or  update  their  homes because they have to eventually take it down  or  don’t  want  the  stigma  associated  with  looking  like  a  hospital.”

Needs

The product must instill independence to the user The product must simplify daily activities The product must provide the user a sense of security The product must allow the user to feel confident The product should be able to allow the user to feel more social The product must be customizable to the user specification The product must be portable The product must be easily assembled The product must be easy to use

Reflection Cheryl Crane is a 60 year old designer who volunteers at the Ashby Village. Her job is to evaluate  people’s  homes  and  make  recommendations  to  make  it  more  assessable  and  safer.  She  usually evaluates the homes of the elderly, and from her experience finds fall prevention, vision and mobility as a top priority. Cheryl Crane is one of few people we got in contact with through the Ashby Village, a program dedicated for the elderly. I decided to approach the interview as if she was a care taker, because her job is  primarily  to  assist.  But  right  off  the  bat,  she  responded  to  one  of  my  questions  saying  that  she  isn’t  a  care taker but just someone who just simply assists. But using open ended questions (something we learn to use after our first interview), I found out that she was in her 60s (one of the age groups that our product is targeted for). So instead of interviewing her as a caretaker, I decided to interview her as an elderly. She definitely gave me a ton of insight of her experience growing older and from her experience on her job and what she observed. Again, I learned to use open ended question and have the

interviewee steer and guide the interview instead of me. I found that this is the best way to remove any bias from my question and discover true needs for our target market.

Interview Transcript (Note some responses are summaries of what was actually stated)

Q: What does home health care mean to you? A:  Home  health  care  is  providing  for  those  who  aren’t  so  independent,  for  those  who  can’t  provide  for  themselves. For me, I assist those who are independent. I evaluate their homes and make them safer. Q: Can you give me some more specific information on what you do? A:  Well  I’m  an  interior  designer  and  my  primary job is to make the lives of seniors easier. I work with a team of designers who go to the homes of those who contact the Ashby Village. We have a checklist that we go through and look for any potential hazards. We evaluate the conditions of the sidewalk, the way the entrance of the house is set up, side of the house, lighting, kitchen, wiring, bathroom and any other areas of potential pitfalls. One of the major recommendations that I give them is, when possible, to upgrade their stairs to ramps. Stairs are usually not recommended because a lot of falls occur them. Falls is the number thing we try to prevent. Q: Is there a reason why fall prevention is your number on goal? A:  Well  when  a  senior  falls,  the  repercussion  isn’t  just  physical.  It’s  also  mental. There is fear that grows in them that deters them from performing that same task. It changes their attitude about life. Q: In your personal experience what sort of technology do you see involved in the lives of the disabled and elderly A: Well a lot of in home health care involve technology. The automated wheelchair and blood pressure monitor are two examples ... I also read some interesting devices on agenplacetech.com. There was this one device that helped a gentleman with a vision disability see and another about a wearable tech device that has sensors and everything. The  thing  is  people  think  that  seniors  don’t  really  want  to  get  into  technology  and  use  the  computer,  but  that’s  not  always  the  case.  I’m  60  and  a  lot  of  the  people  who  participate  in my apple workshop are older  than  me.  They  want  to  learn  to  use  the  ipad  and  the  computer.  To  us  it’s  a  way  of  communicating. Q: What is something that you noticed is troubling you recently that you previously were able to do? A: Well I found using the key very difficult. I now fiddle with the keys and struggle to open the door sometimes. I sometimes wish that our lock were similar to the ones in a hotel, where a swipe of a card opens the door. There was this one nice house I was inspecting and I found it odd that they had these automatic faucet and  soap  dispensers.  But  I  now  think  they  are  so  smart.  We  don’t  have  to  fiddle  with  anything  and  it  save water. Q: You brought up how fall prevention was your number one goal. What are some common areas besides the stairs do you feel the need for additional assessment? A: The bathroom is a big one. There are some really cool technologies in the bathroom, but the danger of slipping or falling in the shower is something that needs to be addressed more often. There are hydraulic  lifts  that  exist,  but  many  bathrooms  are  simply  too  small  for  them.  Many  adults  don’t  realize  or  refuse  to  believe  that  they’re  growing  older,  and  don’t  really  account  for  it.  

There’s  also  the  matter  of  rental  home.  Seniors  are  reluctant  to modify or update their homes because they  have  to  eventually  take  it  down  or  don’t  want  the  stigma  associated  with  looking  like  a  hospital.  Rental homes are very small and the appliances are very basic and not particularly suited for the elderly.

3.11.13

Laura, residential architect for Ashby Village

Introduction

John and I interviewed Laura, a residential architect for Ashby Village. Ashby Village is a concept community in which senior citizens who prefer to age at home pool resources and volunteers to assist one another. As a residential architect, Laura works with an interior designer to assess the accessibility and safety of the homes of elderly members.

We interviewed her to get a better understanding of the typical problems she encounters in her assessments, and what problems she is not able to fix. She uses a checklist of things to look for in the home,  along  with  an  interview  of  the  elderly  person’s  needs. She finished by giving the member a report of recommendations to improve their home. Reflections and Lessons Learned Laura thought the needs of the user base (senior citizens) would change significantly as the older boomers,  who  don’t  know  how  to  use computers, die out. This demographic is changing to people who know how to use the internet and computers. So maybe we should target our robot design at this new market, of people who are more comfortable with technology, robotics, and assistive devices. She advocated a lot of home design solutions, remodeling homes or co-living, moving groups of retired people together. Do we want to target groups, like nursing homes, with our robot? This group also increases the resources available to afford and maintain our robot, something to think about. Maybe even more so than current retirees, we may want to talk to future retirees: people who will be senior citizens in 20 years. We have the problems that citizens currently have through our interviews with the elderly. But the people who will be elderly when our product, 10 or 20 years out, finally becomes technologically available at a consumer level, what problems will they have? Pair interviewing worked really well here, we had a nice flow of conversation, got a lot of useful insight, and focused, cohesive notes. The one thing: we would have liked to ask her more questions as she retires. Banking off our last insight: Laura is a future retiree, how will she interact differently with her environment and technology? What problems does she foresee for herself and her generation?

Statement

“Lighting  and  mobility  are  the  common  issues,  getting  around  the  home  easily  and  safely.”

“We  look  at  improvable  items,  we  want  to  prevent  accidents.” “My  team  tries  to  provide comfort to members, so they  can  keep  their  way  of  life.” “We  tailor  or  recommendations  to  the  person’s  disabilities, some people are very able-bodied, some  are  not.” “A  lot  of  furniture  is  poorly  suited  to  elderly  people: types of chairs, heights of tables, drawers which  they  don’t  have  the  strength  to  pull  out.” “Sometimes  my  clients  can’t  afford  to  implement  the  recommendations  I  can’t  make.” “The  biggest  issue  I  see  is  loneliness.” “Every  senior  needs  a  lot  of  care  from  a  caregiver.” “Seniors  can’t  drive  anymore  and  lose  the  ability  to  go  places  on  their  own.” “People  who  have  loved  their  homes, who have gardens  they’re  attached  to,  you  see  that  the  home is an expression of who they are, and of the memories  they’ve  collected  over  the  years. They don’t  want  to  leave” “[Seniors]  have  a  different  relationship  to  our  bodies and health vs the senior citizens now (she is 60, baby boomer). No-one likes to think of themselves  as  old,  so  we  ignore  the  mirror.”

Needs

Product enhances user mobility. Product ensures safety of the user. Product makes users more comfortable. Product is adjustable for a wide range of disabilities. Product picks up the slack for poorly-designed products and spaces. Product cheaper than redesigning the living space. Product connects to user to the people they care about. Product provides care equivalent to a caregiver. Product enables users to travel independently. Product enables user to live from home. Product makes user feels active and independent.

Transcript

INTRODUCTION

-Building

- Residential architecture, volunteer for Ashby Village, she is concerned about aging in place.

-What she does: assessments of people homes, usually  when  there’s  a  specific  issue,  checklist  of  things we are looking for, talk to them about needs, give them a report of recommendations

SPECIFIC ISSUES

-Lighting is always an issue, accessible lights

-Mobility: an easy pathway into the home, even sidewalk, stairs of even height, railings/handrails

-Inside the homes: we look at improvable items, we want to prevent accidents. Provide comfort in keeping their way of life.

-Doorknobs are difficult for senior citizens

-Bathroom: tiled floor is slippery, grab bars for the shower/bathtub -> getting into and out of the tub

-Always depends on the person ->  tailor  recommendations  to  the  person’s  disabilities,  some  people  are  very able-bodied, some are not

-Kitchen: Type of chair stool, heights and use of drawers. People may not have cabinet lighting, but you really want that to provide the best lighting.

-“I  recently  went  to  a  couple’s  house,  where  the  man  has  congenital  Parkinson’s…  just  in  terms  of  getting  around,  they  wanted  to  know  what  to  do.  Just  watching  him  moving  around,  was  pretty  hard.”

--Location: Moving the bedroom to the ground floor -> remodeling the house so that you can stay in this house for the rest of her life.

--“I  haven’t  worked  with  anybody  who  has  a  lift  or  anthing  mechanical  like  that.”  Stairs  are  prohibitive,  ramps are a possibility.

-- FOLLOWUP: ask her to send us the checklist.

DAY IN THE LIFE WALKTHROUGH

Not just assessments, but I do remodeling too. I  meet  them,  ask  them  if  they  have  any  specific  needs  (ie  Parkinson’s) From  there  I  do  the  walkthrough,  go  thru  each  room,  sometimes  with  them,  or  I’ll  do  it and then

give  them  an  overview  of  what  I’ve  seen

EXISTING NEEDS NOT MET

--Mobility issue: wheel-chaired  senior  citizen,  she  couldn’t  get  around  and  her  house  wasn’t  designed  for easy wheelchair access.

- Existing problems: doors, hallways, financial problems  wouldn’t  let  someone  expand  a  doorway

-- One specific suggestion: take the door off its hinges, and replace it with a curtain or a sliding door.

-- Stair-lifts, cost

UNMET SENIOR NEEDS

Biggest issue: loneliness The internet ->  “My  generation  is  used to using the computers, but the generation who is 80

now,  have  a  lot  of  trouble.”    Maybe  use  the  computers  to  ease  loneliness  (Skype,  Facetime)  -> help people to monitor the senior citizens (video cameras, more monitoring)

Each person really has an individual issues, but universal issues are limited mobility, arthritis, loneliness, deteriorating sight

Every senior needs a lot of care -> space for a caretaker Access ->  accessibility,  they  can’t  drive  anymore  and  lose  the  ability  to  go  places.

CARE IN THE HOME

I  don’t  really  do  that.

SENIOR EMOTIONAL ELICITIAN - They’re  attached  to  the  home,  no-one wants to give up their home and move on to assisted

care or something else. - “People  who  have  loved  their  homes  who  have  gardens  they’re  attached  to,  you  see  that the

home  is  an  expression  of  who  they  are,  and  of  the  memories  they’ve  collected  over  the  years.  Even downsizing is so hard. Family

- What’s  hard:  their  friends  are  dying,  they  feel  more  alone,  how  do  you  keep  the  connections  going ->

- that’s  where  Ashby  Village is going -> provide connection, helps provide services like driving (to doctor’s  appointments,  supermarket,  etc).

- I’d  prefer  a  senior  co-housing, or a senior community. What I would want: sharing a house with some other senior citizens, build a little  community.  And  there  are  people  who  are  doing  this…

- Co-housing (esp in Berkeley): people have their own units, and they share group spaces like a kitchen, dining room, garden. Some people are developing senior co-housing -> the first one just opened in Nevada. Denmark has a lot of co-housing -> Stay independent, social, mobile

- Assisted living on a small community -> family-sized caregiver, share the love. Almost like a charter school, a small school.

CURRENT SOLUTIONS

- Changing surfaces, remodeling, handrails -> looking at the macro level (vs having the right can openers)

STORY

- What would make someone move out of their homes? - A  woman  from  Ashby  village  is  renting  an  apartment,  on  the  top  floor  of  a  plaza.  She’s  lived  

there a long time, she wants to stay  there.  There’s  a  balcony  which  faces  the  street.  She  goes  shopping,  and  then  she  can’t  carry  the  groceries  up  the  steps.  She  wanted  to  figure  out  a  way  to  get things into her apartment.

- Idea: a pulley system for the balcony, a basket. CLOSING THOUGHTS - There is a huge market of seniors growing, and someone needs to think about this, ad in

product design. How can you make things that look nice -> idea: luxury goods for senior citizens. Oxxo, and other things where looks, style, atheistic is important.

- Generation gap: we have a different relationship to our bodies and health vs the senior citizens now (she is 60, baby boomer). No-one likes to think of themselves as old, so we ignore the mirror.

- Anything that benefits the elders, benefits everyone else. Why should we pay for ramps? -> You never  know  when  you’ll  be  in  need  of  something  helpful.  Accessibility  is  useful  for  lots  of  people  -> universal design.

- Universal design -> access to everything, from architecture to products. Most people do not have that access in their homes, but they need to!

3.18.13 Jackie Interview

Location:  Jackie’s  House

Statement “I  have  medical  alert” “Getting up and down the stairs has become very difficult” “I  need  hired  help  because  they  are  more reliable” “Losing  the  ability  to  drive  has  been  very  discouraging”

Needs

The product must have fail-safe backup plans for worst case scenarios. The product helps users navigate stairways The product must be reliable and give the user confidence that it will always work A product that helps with mobility would be valued

Reflection

This interview helped me understand the challenges faced by the elderly and changed

how I was thinking about many of the problems we had discussed earlier with the group. I had never thought about little problems like changing a light bulb or having the mailman leave packages on the ground. Small maintenance tasks that are out of reach are also an issue.

For our tensegrity chair product I realized I had to think much more about little details like the size of the buttons to turn on the chair. The buttons to control the chair would have to be simple and high off the ground.

Interview Transcript (Some responses are summaries of what was actually stated)

Jackie is a member of Ashby Village. Q: Tell me about Ashby Village. What types of services do they provide? A: They provide volunteer who help me with a variety of tasks around the house. They also provide check-in phone calls and they have some activities and classes. Every year they host a Christmas  party,  but  there  aren’t  too  many  events  like  that  since  it  is  hard  for seniors to get out of their homes. Q: What types of help do you need around you house? A: I need assistance gardening and piping. I need help around the house with general chores. Recently an Ashby village volunteer changed a few light bulbs for me and helped me with my computer.

Q: What does your hired help assist you with? How often do they come to your house? A: My primary helper is a UC Berkeley student who comes twice a week. They help me with computer issues and grocery shopping. Q: What are the advantages of having a hired assistant? A: They are more reliable. I can count of them to come twice a week as well, which is more often than I can request Ashby village help. Q: Are there any issues you have had with Ashby village volunteers? A: Ashby village can be a little slow to match me with a volunteer who is free to help me. Also, they have no phone service after 5:30 pm and no weekend service. I hear that there is an emergency  line,  but  I  can’t  think  of  an  emergency  where  I  would  call  them  over my hired help or the hospital. Q: What other types of assistance do you have that enable you to stay in your home? A: I have medical alert, which would allow me to all for assistance if I fell or needed emergency help for any other reason. It costs $29/month, but it is absolutely necessary. Q: Can you tell me about the modifications you have made to your house? A: I have added handles next to the fridge and around other cabinets and other places in the kitchen and bedroom where I need help balancing. I also have a walker with a tray so I can place things on the tray instead of carrying them. There are also added pads under the rugs to make standing on the floor easier. Q: What type of challenges do you face living in your home instead of moving to a smaller retirement community? A: Having a two story house is a big issue. Getting up and down the stairs has become very difficult. Driving is also a big problem. Losing the ability to drive greatly restricted my ability to do many of my favorite activities, like driving to SF to attend social or cultural events. I have not been able to use BART since the elevators in many stops are very poorly designed. A few stops have elevators all the way at the end of the station which are very hard to walk to and unsafe since no one else is over there. Q: What are you most worried will prevent you from staying in your home? A:  I  am  afraid  of  falling.  Even  if  I’m  not  severely  injured,  it  would  force  me  out  of  this  house  and possibly be life-ending considering my other medical conditions. Q: What have your friends done in retirement? Do they live in their houses as well or have they moved into senior-living communities. A: Actually, all of my friends I can think of at the moment are living in their homes. I have considered moving to a retirement community since they are so convenient. Everyone admits that retirement homes are much more convenient, and many of my friends talk about moving into one, but we all love our homes.

Expert Interview with NASA Intelligent Robotics Group, 3/18

The team went to visit the Intelligent Robotics Group at the NASA Ames Research center. We had a two-hour meeting with researchers who are building the first prototypes of Tenesegrity robots. We learned a lot about the advantages and limitations of these types of robots, and saw several interesting mockups and working models. At the end of this document are photos and videos of several different prototypes.

We met with NASA Researchers Vytas Sunspiral, Adrian Agogino, along with our graduate student advisor Drew Sablehaus.

Key Points

They emphasized there could be a lot of different form factors for robots, although they are currently pursing balls and snakes, we should not let that limit us.

Vytas really saw tensegrity as mimicking biology: allowing robots to finally be as resilient, flexible,  and  robust  as  human  beings.  “Tensegrity  is  best  when  using  nature’s  simple  solutions  to  problems.”

. Per tensegrity-enabled manipulators: stronger manipulators would require more rigid structures. They suggested attaching traditional robotics manipulators (ie hard) to a soft tensegrity structure. Strength of materials will always define gripper strength

Key advantages of tensegrity: requires a lot less power, compressible, light-weight, robust vs traditional hard robotics.

Project is funded by a blue-sky,  10+  year  research  grant.  Basically,  they  don’t  expect  the  technology to be feasible for ten year, which definitely makes our job harder!

We could use the modeling software Rhino, combined with the Grasshopper spring modeling plugin, to model tensegrity. The software is difficult to learn.

Obvious applications from the NASA guys: exoskeleton, prosthetic limbs, and prosthetic knees. Tensegrity is also great for under-actuated systems: one or two motors can generate many

different structural poses.

Feedback on Top Concepts, Concept Brainstorm

1. Shower - What about a safe and soft bathtub? Tensegrity structure covered by a waterproof membrane,  “inflates”  when  you  get  in.

2. Terrain Avoidance system – Use force feedback? Tensegrity is great for an underactuated system: 2 motors plus distributed loading can handle a wide range of forces.

3. What about deployable tensegrity walkers? Tensegrity ramps? Tensegrity structures with membranes (like beds and chairs)

4. Rehab for physical therapy, disabilities, and stretching -> a la Chris Finn (quadriplegic)

This video demonstrates a tensegrity leg. The way the leg moves inspired our team to think outside the box for tensegrity motion devices.

Tensegrity arm model with a manipulator. This inspired us to look at creating tensegrity that was more active in its interactions with the environment.

This tensegrity model showed how tensegrity can create systems that mimic biology on some level but are nevertheless fundamentally different. The tensegrity shown above has sufficient freedom in its hips to allow it to walk without knees.

This picture shows the first the sections of a tensegrity snake model under construction at the NASA lab. The prototype of a tensegrity snake helped to give us an idea of how tensegrity robots could be constructed in the future.

3.24.13

Joan Home Healthcare Interview Writeup

Introduction

I conducted a phone interview with Joan on March 14. Joan is a 73-year old elderly woman with Stage-4 bone cancer, with a prognosis of 10 years or so. Her husband Carl has mid-stage dementia which over the years has slowly gotten worse; although his long-term memory is good, he has little short-term memory  and  can’t  make  decisions.  They  live  together  in  a house, and have a caregiver come every weekday for about 3 hours.

TODO: Statement ->  needs  table,  expand  what’s  in  the  reflection,  para.  3

Reflection and Lessons Learned

Going into the interview, I did not think a phone interview would be that useful. I figured that the face-to-face iteraction would be crucial to dig deep and get a meaningful interview. I was pleasantly surprised, then, when I got a great interview over the phone. I got a lot of useful leads, for example Sweden and Japan elderly care, and learned a lot about what Joan cared about.

None of my other groupmates could make the interview, so I did it alone. Once again, I found it difficult to  take  notes  and  keep  the  conversation  going  at  the  same  time.  I  wouldn’t  hear  the  last  thing  she  said  because I was writing something down, and lose the thread of her conversation. This interview definitely reinforced my preference for pair interviews. I also realized I preferred to take notes on paper, versus using the computer. I tend to make a lot of arrows, and underline/circle points to emphasize them,  and  that’s  really  impossible  using  Word.

I think the most important thing I learned from this interview is how important staying active was to Joan. Staying active ties well with the mobility and independence needs we already identified. There was  a  great  quote  she  had,  about  how  Joan  “wanted  to  stay  the  same  person,”  even  as  she  aged.  So  another need we can spin off that is comfort. Provide comfort to the user, provide a sense of habit or constancy, security, a daily routine, and all the emotions which go along with those: satisfaction, contentment, low stress and worry, calm, and ultimately happiness.

Raw Notes (pseudo-transcript)

Helper Carlos comes every weekday for about 3 hours. -> checks husband to take his meds, helps him get dressed, put on his hearing aids, make his bed, do the laundry every day, go to the grocery store. Cooking is difficult, they usually make simple meals. She can still drive.

Their daughter lives with them, but is gone on weekdays; she is around on the weekends. They plan to

Main  problem:  “There  are22  stairs  to  the  front  door:”  (with  railings).  They  find  it  very  difficult  to  walk  up  the  stairs.  There’s  a  walkway  along  the  side  of  the  house  which  is  much  easier,  but  they  need  to  install railings.  Luckily,  they  have  the  money  to  remodel  that  side  of  the  house  and  add  railings,  so  they  don’t  fall.

They also plan to remodel their basement to turn into a bedroom for a live-in caregiver, as they get older. Short-term, their daughter will live there and enjoy more privacy.

They tried living in a nursing home (senior housing facility) for six months and absolutely hated it. They had a tiny dingy room for two people, and had to eat in a dining room with fluorescent lighting. They ate with people  who  were  much  more  disabled  than  them,  and  they  didn’t  like  that.  It  wasn’t  pleasant.  “We  don’t  want  to  live  with  old  people  ever  again.”  It  was  very  clinical;  they  lived  in  the  independent  living  section  of  the  home,  they  didn’t  even  want  to  try  the assisted living section. There was an atmosphere of old people; the attendants ranged from boring to awful, and the home did not provide the active lifestyle they preferred.

Ashby Village provides volunteers to do household work, and a social network: those are the two things she liked most. When her health turned bad, she had a support network to turn to, find doctors and caregivers through the service. They change the batteries in the smoke detectors, lightbulbs, and even fixed her computer, since she has no idea how it works.

Something  Joan  doesn’t  want  to  handle  is  medical  boxes;  she  lets  the  caregiver  do  those.  She  didn’t  want  to  take  responsibility  for  important  things,  so  she  had  the  caregiver  do  it.  She’s  tried  to  provide  independent help for her husband, so that if she grows ill he will be okay.

Talking  more  about  her  husband  and  his  dementia,  he  really  needs  help  with  household  tasks.  “The  world  isn’t  really  set  up  for  old  people.”  For  example,  last  week  he  fell,  and  knocked  over  a  table  overflowing with books and a wine glass. The books flew everywhere and the glass shattered. She had to clean it up, but she wished a caregiver was there to do it.

She refused to use a walker after her time in the hospital; now she uses a cane. Being active is very important  to  her,  but  she  considers  herself  an  introvert  and  doesn’t  mind  being  a  homebody.  

The  most  important  thing  in  Joan’s  life  is  to  have  a  social  support  network  of  people.  Friends  and  family.  She  said  that  it’s  important  that  “you’re  the  same  person,”  even  as  you  age.  She’s  traveled  a  lot  and  been  very  active  throughout  her  life,  and  she  wants  to  stay  active  even  as  she  age’s.  She  can  drive,  she can walk a mile, it just takes her 40 minutes.

The most important aspect of healthcare for Joan is to stay with doctors who she has a relationship with. Someone she knows, someone who knows her and she can rely on. She specifically chooses young doctors who will probably outlive her, to keep that relationship.  Some  of  her  friends  can’t  pick  and choose doctors so easily, like in Kaiser, but they are still great.

She is very lucky because she has money put aside to pay for remodeling and revamping the house. She has friends stuck in nursing homes, sharing rooms with people they hate, relying on medicare and Medicaid. In other countries (Europe + Japan), the government pays for much more elderly care: housekeeping, cooking, facilities for the blind. Bike lanes are more safe so that you can ride a bike even at 70. Her cousin is a 90-year old man in Sweden who lives in his own apartment, a man comes to his house  and  cleans  it,  and  helps  him  with  anything  he  needs,  and  the  government  pays  for  it.  It’s  important to stay with the friends you have, instead of being moved a hundred miles away to a nursing home.

Products  they  use  at  home:  they’ve  made  the  bathroom  more  handicap  accessible,  adding  railings  to  everything.  Railings  on  stairway.  With  money  it’s  easy.

Joan is terrified that she will become blind, because reading, watching movies, and everything else she loves requires her to have good vision.

4.12.13

DALi Project Lecture Location: 3110 Etcheverry Hall

The DALi Project: Devices for Assisted Living

Exploring New Frontiers for Assisted Living Devices The European Robotics Forum

Lecture by: Luigi Palopoli

Objective: Support people with moderate impairments. Why: Mobility give elders an autonomous life which in tern combats other negative affects of aging How: CNP (Cognitive Navigation Prosthesis)

- Flexible and Non-Intrusive Solution - Autonomous sensing and cognitive abilities

What: Start with a walker because it is already accepted (no stigma) and it is a simple platform to work off of. The first part of the project is to develop a walker with navigation assistance Where: (What environments will this work in?)

- Semi-Structured Environments - Environments where the topology is well known - Well-Lit environments – the first generation sensors will need light

Examples of Environments that fit these criteria: Large malls and large airports fit these criteria because they are confusing for people, stressful, but relatively controlled environment for testing the robot. Also, help is readily available in malls and  airports,  so  a  malfunction  of  the  prototype  wouldn’t  be life-threatening. User Case: Anna (76yrs old) wants to go shopping. She will encounter groups of people at the mall. The technical solution will be to have haptic handles and to gently apply the brake on one wheel to turn her in the correct direction. The robot will also detect stress and suggest calm routes to take or suggest taking a break. Challengers: User Acceptance and market analysis

- Talk to users - Low fidelity prototypes - Match user requirements with market needs

Final Price must be less than 3,000 euros. This limits the technology so it is a practical project. User Needs Assessment Process:

4. User Acceptance 1. Analysis of Requirements 2. Tech Solutions 3. User Tests

Sensing Algorithms:

- Stereo camera pair for 3D perception - Kinect sensors

Camera: Seimens technology to generate point cloud of the surrounding space Sensing: Detecting and tracking. The use is this requires large amounts of computing power, which will increase the cost of the device. Cognitive Engine:

- Modeling the environment - Planning motion in real time - Anomaly detection

Global & Local planning

User Acceptance

Analaysis of Requirements

Technical Solution

User Test

- People HATE being corrected too often Global Planning

- Create a heat map of activity & plan route around these area - Remember common places and plan the same route every time

Reflection It was very interesting to learn about a research project in the field we have been working

on ourselves. Professor Palopoli had addressed some of the challenges we met during our project in very intelligent ways. For example, in our project we were concerned about user acceptance and our product having a social stigma, and Professor Palopoli decided to build his project off of an existing solution: the walker. This way he ensured the product would be socially accepted and have the best chance of reaching users. Also, it was very interesting to see how Professor Palopoli addressed technical challenges with a low budget. The sensors he put on his assisted walker were stock components or components existing from other products – like the Microsoft Kinect sensor. Using two off-the-shelf cameras, with advanced software allowed the project to stay on-budget, but still provide the desired functionality.

When continuing work on our project we will think about the user needs assessment flow chart and think more carefully about the likelihood of user acceptance.

4.24.13

Transforming Health Care with Technology Location: 310 Sutardja Dai

Transforming Healthcare with Technology: A Model Based Approach

NSF Program Director and Researcher

Health Care Crisis:

16% of GDP US Spends more money, gets lower results Dependency ratio is changing: Baby boomers are retiring

Needed Changes: The Healthcare system needs to change from hospital centric to patient centric system. Patient centric means the patient is the center of the health care system instead of each individual hospital. In a patient centric system, the patient can go to any hospital and doctors can view data on the type of care they have previously had and assess what they need. Patients themselves can also track their health through online technology and be more informed as to the type of care they need. Challenges: Technology outpaces research. A research project on patient-centric technology (for use in the medical field) started in 2005 and finished in 2011. By then the iPhone and iPad had been invented, making the entire project obsolete before it was published. Pasteur’s  Quadrant: Pasteur was an understanding inspired & application inspired scientist. Many other scientists and inventers are mostly understanding inspired, for example physicist. Many others, like inventors are application inspired and are not as concerned with understanding the theory behind their inventions.  The  next  phase  of  research  in  healthcare  models  must  be  in  Pasteur’s  quadrant:  understanding inspired & application inspired. Causes of Mortality: Genetic – 30% Behavioral – 40% Model Patients Behaviors:

Economics Epidemiology Robotics

Big Data:

Doctors and the government want to learn how to use Big Data. We have an incredible amount of data about healthcare treatments that we can devise data-driven treatments. One of the

challenges about devising data driven treatments is find the proper thresholds for the huge data sets, then applying that to individuals.

Since the data is about a large population it can be difficult to make reliable predicts for tends for each individual.

Big Data example: Google predicts epidemics before the CDC. This is a data source that is not being fully capitalized on.

Reflection It was interesting to hear about a new type of healthcare research project. Most of the

research I have read about involves developing a specific technology or specific product. The research presented in this talk was analyzing data to develop a better overall healthcare system. This  didn’t  directly  apply  to  our  product,  but  it  is  very  good  to  keep  the  overall  healthcare  system  in mind when making our product.

4.26.13 Joan, 73-yo w/ Stage-4 Bone Cancer

Introduction

Our team first met Joan in a phone interview, through our Ashby Village network. We interviewed her again, in-home, to get her feedback on our two prototypes. We demoed both  our  “Lifting  Chair”  and  “Social  Bot”  high-fidelity prototypes. We also discussed the problems she faced in her home, and “ideal”  versions  of  our  prototypes.

Joan is a 73-year old retired English teacher with Stage-4 bone cancer, with a prognosis of 10 years or so. She lives in a home with her husband Carl who has mid-stage dementia. A doctor recently diagnosed  him  with  Alzheimer’s,  which  means  he  will  become  significantly  worse.  Currently,,  although  his long-term memory is good, he has little short-term memory  and  can’t  make  decisions.  

Joan uses a cane and walker. She lived in a senior living center for 6 months, in the unassisted section, after  she  fell  and  received  hairline  fractures  in  her  leg  bone.  She  hated  it:  “everyone  there  was  very  disabled, it  made  me  feel  very  old  [laughter].”  Her  husband  had  a  stroke  and  receives physical therapy twice a week.

She owns exclusively Apple products: she has an iPhone, an iPad, and a iMac. She prefers her iMac, since  she  can  touchtype.  She  bought  her  husband  a  “senior-oriented”  phone  with  big  buttons,  but  he  never learned how to use it. She plays Words With Friends (you go Grandma!). The first ten minutes of every  meeting  with  other  AV  members,  is  a  gripe  session  about  technology:  “my  frustrations  with  tech.”

Lifting Chair Feedback

If the lifting chair was mobile, that would be especially useful for her husband. Her husband has problems both standing up and sitting down.

She lived in a senior living center for 6 months, and hated it. The home had a motorized recliner, which would help you stand up by actuating the chair into an upright position. The first time  her  husband  used  it,  he  didn’t  realize  what  the  remote  did,  and  the  chair  threw  him  out  of  the chair (he was very surprised)! After that, they just disconnected the motor.

Interesting idea: what if you used your iPhone to actuate the chair? Then you could get feedback, and never be surprised...

She sees a physical therapist, who teaches her the proper way to stand up and sit down. Interesting that there is a “form”  to  such  a  simple  task.

She  likes  walkers,  she  doesn’t  mind  that  they  look  super-dorky. In fact, she prefers walkers to canes,  because  the  walker  is  a  little  shield  for  her  against  incoming  traffic.  “I  like  that  the  walker  puts a cage around me so people  don’t  bump  into  me.”

Joan would prefer a simple, portable, and foldable walker. Issues with current walkers: too heavy  is  a  big  one,  there  are  walkers  with  seats  she  doesn’t  like.  She  doesn’t  like  walekrs  with  locking brakes. Public places usually have  seats,  so  she  doesn’t  need  a  walker  with  a  seat;  she  would  prefer  to  have  a  more  portable  one.  She  uses  a  “ski”  walker  attachment  for  hardwood  floors  so  she  doesn’t  tear  up  the  floor.

Possible improvements to our chair:

◦ Slow motor control ◦ Double confirm remote, or some other form of confirmation/AV feedback ◦ Possibly useful if portable/transportable

Social Ball Feedback

- First  reaction:  “What  a  wonderful  cat  toy!  If  you  added  a  laser  pointer  my  cat  would  love  it.”  Trololololol.

- We had a hard time explaining  the  concept  to  her,  she  didn’t  really  understand  how  she  could  we  use  it.  We  tried  to  explain  it  to  her  as  a  “mobile  Siri,”  in  which  the  ball  follows  you  around  and uses voice technology to interact in an interesting way.

- Whenever she has a medical problem, she googles it, looks it up in WebMD and MayoClinic. How coudld we integrate those features into our social ball?

- Medical crises: Her husband had a stroke. He  was  sitting  reading,  and  realized  he  couldn’t  reach  over  to  

grab the Coke he was drinking.  He  calls  her  over,  and  she  realizes  “Honey,  you’re  having  a  stroke.”  She  calls  an  ambulance,  and  rides  with  him  to  Alta  Bates.  He  receives  very  prompt  medical attention. What would of happened if there was no-one to call an ambulance for him?...

Her husband had undiagnosed pneumonia. Her  husband  fell  getting  out  of  bed,  and  didn’t  have  the  strength  to  get  up.  She  tried  to  help  him  up,  but  couldn’t.  She  calls  the  fire  department, who help him get up. The EMT realizes that he is coughing, and takes him to the hospital. He actually has pneumonia, which causes his weakness.

Lessons Learned:

We noticed a big difference between our first interview with Joan, over the phone, and our second interview, in-home. She was more reticent in talking about her personal problems in person, which surprised us. We thought the phone interview would be more impersonal, but instead the detachment helped her be more open and willing to talk about sensitive issues.

Joan  had  trouble  understanding  what  exactly  our  “Social  Ball”  prototype  would  do.  She  couldn’t  understand  why  she  would  want  to  buy  it.  Her  reaction  reinforced  our  need  to  think  about  the  experience  an  elderly  citizen  would  have  with  that  concept,  and  it’s  compelling  selling points. What sort of new experience are we providing, and what problems are we trying to solve (think about our initial need of Emotional Connection).

Cheryl Crane 2nd Interview [Prototype Feedback] April 30th, 2013

Statement

Tensegrity Chair Feedback Must carry user to a standing

position, not just upright. Must be small and portable. Have sturdy arms to hold onto

while actuating to standing position.

Add arms that elevate the user slightly to complete the standing motion

Model after Lazy Boy products Tensegrity Ball Feedback`

Voice-activated LifeAlert feature in addition to the

social features It can not be a tripping hazard so

precautions in its pathing code would be extremely important to viability.

Lack of space in many elderly people’s  homes  must  be  taken  into account

If user is in an emergency and can’t  speak,  alternative  features  must be included such as clapping to call the ball.

Ball could be a medication dispenser

Tell the user how to crawl if they have fallen and take the right steps in alerting the authorities.

Elderly problems to consider: Space and storage Memory Lights, sounds and movement can

disorient

Analysis

Cheryl seemed to emphasize that the tensegrity chair would need to complete the standing motion to the point where the user was actually standing and not just in an upright position. The tensegrity chair would be greatly improved with sturdy arms that would allow for the user to use both their upper and lower body strength to stand up. Arms that could lift the user slightly could also assist with the fully upright position desired. The tensegrity ball features need to be defined more. However, some features that may be added could be voice control instead of remote control and a LifeAlert feature that would contact the authorities in an emergency even when the user can’t  talk.   The dangers of the tensegrity ball also need to be considered, as it could be a tripping hazard in the elderly  people’s  homes. We need to account for the problems elderly people face such as the space in their homes, their memory loss, and disorienting things that may pose a health hazard to them

Reflection

Cheryl agreed to meet up with us once again after we finished narrowing down our design prototypes to the tensegrity ball and chair. Going into this interview we mainly wanted feedback on the

prototypes we had already designed in the last few weeks. We went through her credentials again and her relation as a market stakeholder. She then went into detail and addressed the main problems that elderly people faced and what kind of thoughts and considerations go through her mind when designing their homes for them. One of these issues was storage and space issues within their homes. The other issue that she touched upon was that kitchens and bathrooms were the most dangerous areas  within  the  elderly  persons’  home.

She gave us feedback on the tensegrity chair. She touched upon a similar Lazy-Boy like product her  father  used  since  he  had  Parkinson’s  to  help  him  get  up  from  a  sitting  position.  She  said  the  key  points would be to make sure there were sturdy arms as her father had a strong upper body and could pull himself up and that a combination of upper and lower body strength aspects would help the user the most in getting up. Also, the product her father used did not extend its standing motion enough and left her father in a slightly upright position, but not fully standing. This would be an important point to focus on in our tensegrity chair. This could maybe be remedied through the chairs arms pushing the person up slightly at the end of its motion.

There was a lot more feedback and ideas produced in the second part of the prototype feedback  on  the  tensegrity  ball  since  its  purpose  and  form  weren’t  completely  set  as  the  tensegrity  chair’s.  Cheryl  advised  there  be  a  voiced  command  like  Siri  that  would  be  able  to  call  people/text  and  overall just connect the user to other close people to them. She noted that the features need to be more defined before we address other people for feedback on the product. The ball also might serve as a tripping hazard to the elderly users. This gave us the perspective that the ball might cause more harm than good. This however, could be remedied through a pathing system similar to that that they use in car parking systems where the ball avoids obstacles and stays a certain distance away from the user constantly.

In the end, Cheryl related our project similar to that of a movie Robot and Frank that we should watch to give ourselves a more general overview of what we are trying to accomplish, enhancing elderly  people’s  lives.  Overall,  this  interview  has  given  us  the  perspective  to  continue advancing the tensegrity chair concept because we have already solidified the features of the chair and the user needs it would fulfill. Also, it seems much simpler to receive feedback on a prototype that is more less freeform and already has its features defined.

May 1, 2013 Location: Shirley’s  House

Statement

“I  want  to  live  at  home  as  long  as  possible” “Getting  up  and  down  the  stairs  was very difficult right  after  my  hip  surgery” “I  have  hired  help  for  cleaning  the  house  but  not gardening” With regards to technology “I’m  a  realist,  it’s  here  and  it’s  happening” “Pre  training  was  great  for  my  hip  surgery” “The  chair  would  have  helped  me  stand  and  sit  before  my  surgery  and  during  my  recovery” “You  should  interview  my  fiend  about the chair  he  could  really  use  it”

Needs

Independence is very important. The product helps users navigate stairways The product should help people do what they enjoy and reduce their workload on tasks that they do not enjoy. Some users are very accepting of technological solutions. Users need to be trained before they get their robots. User was interested in a tensegrity chair. Showed the ability to market by word of mouth and excitement for the product.

Reflection

Shirley was very excited to interview with us. She planned for and looked to the future. When she bought her house years ago she planned and bought a house that would work for her as she aged. Her goal is to live in her home as long as possible. Shirley kept up well with technology and was getting an tablet soon.

Lifting Chair Prototype Feedback The chair would be more helpful if it was light and portable. Sitting in low and or soft seats was not possible after her hip operation. One of her friends had a disease which prevented him from easily standing up. He uses an existing standing product but still requires help to stand all of the way up. She thought that a device that prevented falling and picked users all of the way up would be a very attractive product.

Appendix B: User Needs Hierarchy

4.21.2013

Hierarchy of User Needs

Intro

Our user needs changed throughout the semester. We put together an original list of the top 5 needs for the midterm tradeshow. After feedback, however, we realized that the needs were too broad. To fix this, we chose our top 3 needs and focused on a particular problem associated with them.

Process

We developed these needs directly from users. After an interview, we would write a brief summary of the interview, lessons learned, and statement-needs analysis based on the transcript. After the first 10 or so interviews, we analyzed the combined statement-needs results, and chose our most important needs: this list was our original needs list (around the time of the MT).

Once we had 20 interviews, we analyzed the interviews again, to construct our final hierarchy of user needs (shown below). At this point, we had shifted the focus of the project from the broad area of “home  healthcare  for  the  elderly  and  disabled”  to  a  more  specific  “help elderly in every-day  tasks.”  Our  needs hierarchy reflects this fact.

Needs ordered in hierarchy based both on user needs, and project feasibility

Top User Need (targeted by final Tensegrity chair product)

1. Independence: empower seniors to live the lives they want Lots of problems with doing simple tasks, makes seniors helpless and powerless, loss of control

they once had

Primary User Needs (targeted by other prototypes)

2. Mobility: keep seniors active and engaged in the world through mobility 3. Social Connection: connect seniors to people they care about

Secondary User Needs (useful  needs  we  didn’t  directly  address,  but  thought  about  in  the  design  process)

4. Reliability: 6-sigma+ reliability 5. Comfort 6. Compensate for poorly-designed environment (tables too high, chairs uncomfortable) 7. Dignity (or lack of humiliation, embarrassment, shame) 8. Care-giver assistance 9. Adaptable (or customizable) 10. Mental health + emotional support

Our First List User Needs (Peer Feedback)

In our original collection of user needs, we chose a broad assortment of the most common elderly and disabled users faced in their day-to-day lives. We showed these needs to our peers and the professor.

Peer Feedback – Needs Hierarchy:

1. Independence 2. Reliability 3. Mobility 4. 24-hour care 5. Social Interaction

Our Updated User Needs (MT Tradeshow)

By the midterm tradeshow, we had refined our user needs and incorporated several new interviews specifically in the elderly healthcare space.

We got some great feedback from Michael Barry at discussion: he had recently conducted a massive study on seniors and shower accidents. He basically pointed out that our needs were too broad: in essence, every one of our needs could be a stand-alone product. After this feedback, we decided to drill down into a core user need, independence.

MT Tradeshow – Needs List:

1. Promotes a more active lifestyle 2. Maintains dignity 3. Adaptable 4. Compensates for poorly designed environments 5. Relieves caregiver burden

Appendix C: Selection of Concepts Generated, Organized by Theme

Appendix D: Screening Matrix Appendix E: Scoring Matrix

Appendix F: Exoskeleton Finger Prototype – In-Depth

The Tensegrity-Inspired Exoskeleton Concept

Problem Statement

Many tensegrity designs have dozens of intertwining elastic elements, which are exposed to the environment. The elastic elements are vulnerable to breaking with wear, or being accidentally cut. Additionally, they could even prove a hazard to the user if the user were to get tangled in the elastic elements. The proposed solution is to enclose the elastic elements to protect them, and the user, while maintaining all the benefits of tensegrity technology.

To model our exoskeleton tensegrity concept we decided to 3D print a finger, which would provide a proof of concept of our technology on a small scale.

Safety

Tensegrity robotics are know for their safety because they are soft robots, meaning they are flexible and deform if they collide with a person. Our exoskeleton tensegrity concept also has this key feature. In a collision with a person the hard exoskeleton surface deforms since each hard segment is held together with only internal elastic elements.

How it Works

Figure 1 shows the assembly of the three-jointed exoskeleton finger. The finger is hollow to allow the elastic elements to run through the center to hold the three joints together. In more advanced prototypes a motor would be attached to the elastic elements allowing the finger to be manipulated.

Drawings and Pictures

Figure 1: Original Sketch in Design Journal

Our Process

After sketching our original ideas we made a 3D model in SolidWorks to better visualize the concept. Our 3D CAD models and dimensioned 2D drawings are shown below.

Figure 2: CAD Assembly

Figure 3: CAD 2D Side View

Figure 4: CAD Detail of the Finger Tip

Our Process

After our 3D CAD model was completed we felt the best way to experiment further with the idea was to rapid prototype the model and try assembling it. The parts were rapid prototyped out of ABS plastic using a fused deposition process. Below are pictures of the finished rapid prototyped part after it was assembled.

Figure 5: Photo of 3D Printed Model

Figure 6: Photo of 3D Printed Model Showing Bending Motion

Figure 7: Close-up of Elastic Element Holding Two Segments Together

Figure 8: Photo of Elastic Element Attached to Finger Tip

Our Process

After studying the outcome of our rapid prototyped part, we went back to the designing improvements of the tensegrity exoskeleton concept. Figure 10 shows the problems we found with our first prototype and some potential solutions. Figure 11 gives other potential applications of our idea.

Figure 10: Problems with Prototype 1, and Potential Solutions

Figure 11: Sketches of Other Potential Applications of Exoskeleton Tensegrity

Conclusion

Overall the prototype served its role as an effective way to communicate the technical concept we  invented.  We  decided  not  to  continue  developing  this  concept  because  there  wasn’t  a  way  to  incorporate it into any of the user needs we found. However, we still believe it is a valuable idea that could be incorporated into future robotics.

Lessons Learned

We learned how to create a CAD model of a prototype for rapid prototyping in the student machine shop. Unfortunately, we found that rapid prototyping was more expensive and more time consuming than we had previously envisioned. However, the final result was still worth the effort.

FIGURE 1: HTTP://WWW.FREEWEBS.COM/AIMEEHATTON/BALL.BMP

Appendix G: Social Ball Prototype – In-Depth

The Tensegrity Social Ball

Problem Statement and User Needs

Develop a portable and intuitive mechanism to simply connect elderly users to the people they care about.

The Tensegrity Ball prototype targets the following user needs (from Midterm):

Social interaction Independence Mobility

The prototype enables elderly users who would otherwise be unable to socially engage with their family, friends, and peers to safely have a conversation without ever leaving the home.

How it Works

For our initial functional prototype, we placed a radio-controlled motorized car inside a soft, inflated beach ball. In this way, the ball would be moved around its environment by a user, controlling  the  car’s  actuation. We drew parallels for our initial prototype from hamster balls. In our initial prototype, the cheap RC car we chose was not powerful enough to move the ball, along with several other problems.

In our next iteration of prototypes, we would add social components, perhaps by adding a smartphone, which has speakerphone and video chat functionality. We would need to develop a way to safely attach an iPhone to the beach ball, or whatever ball membrane we use in version 2.

Our Process:

Our first ideas for the social ball are shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3.

Figure 2: Initial Sketches

Figure 3: Initial Ideas for the Purpose of a Social Ball

User Experience Mind Map

FIGURE 3: PROTOTYPE V1

Prototype V1

In this prototype, we tried to put a cheap RC car into the beach ball. We cut a hole in the ball, inserted the car, and patched the hole with packing tape.

Lessons from prototype V1: Unfortunately, the cheap RC car we bought had several problems. Firstly, the car was not powerful enough to move the ball. Secondly, the RF received was very weak and had a short range, which limited the practical usefulness of the car. Finally, the car needed to be charged every three minutes, which combined with carefully cutting and retaping the ball gave us a two minute window of functionality before a recharge was necessary.

For our next prototype, we needed to find a better RC car which can easily move the ball, has good radio range, and a long charge. Another option was to choose a different cheap source of locomotion. We also thought about a better way to attach the actuation

source inside the ball. Cutting open the ball manually, and retaping after, is both time-consuming and inefficient.

Prototype V2

Armed with the lessons we learned from the first prototype, we ordered a bigger, better RC car with a longer battery life, and a larger beach ball. We carefully cut the ball, and put the car in. This model worked much better, check out a youtube video of a test of this V2 prototype.

Lessons from prototype V2:

With this version, we finally emulated the basic functionality of an actuated Tensegrity ball: it moves around,  and  is  “autonomous”  if  we  pretend  the  RC  operator  doesn’t  exist.  People  were  still  confused  that  a beach ball was moving around, however. We needed to mask the beach-ball nature of the ball, and make it look more like a robot aesthetically.

Prototype V3

We spray-painted the beach ball a metallic blue color, to make the ball look more like a robot. Unfortunately, the paint did not dry correctly on the plastic, and became tacky. As we rolled the ball around, it collected enormous amounts of dirt and trash from the ground, which made it look much worse than the V2 prototype. Ultimately, we scratched this version, bought a new beach ball, and revert to V2.

User Feedback

We demonstrated our V2 prototype to several different elderly users. People had a lot of trouble understanding  what  exactly  the  product  would  do,  especially  since  we  didn’t  completely  know  ourselves.    One  senior  commented  that  “that  thing  would  be  a  great  cat  toy.”    Another  immediately  disliked  it,  because she “knew  [she]  would  trip  on  that  thing.”

From our user feedback we realized that to truly communicate our concept, we would need to devote a lot of time to imagining the user experience. We would probably need to brainstorm the functionality and features of the device, and go through another concept selection and refinement process.

Ultimately, because of these time constraints and the practicality of the social ball, we decided to put the social ball idea on hold. Our final prototype instead was the Tensegrity chair prototype.

Appendix H: Tensegrity Chair Prototype – In-Depth

The Tensegrity Chair Assist

Problem Statement

As patients lose strength due to aging and related health issues they start to have a difficult time with the simple parts of their daily routine. Specifically, seniors often have difficulty sitting down and standing up from their chair.

Our Solution

Our product will assist seniors in sitting down and standing up from their chair. The tensegrity chair assist device will gives users:

The freedom to walk and sit were they want. The independence to go through their day without needing help.

Additionally, since users can easily sit down and stand up they are encouraged to get up and walk around more often.

How it Works

The tensegrity chair assist device will ease users down into their seat and also help lift them up out of it. The chair improvement will provide the minimum assistance required by the users to give them as much exercise as possible. Also the soft deformable nature of the tensegrity structure will cushion otherwise hard chair surfaces and reduce strain on the users back. The tensegrity chair improvement will lower its users by lengthening its tension members and deforming under their weight. Then to help them stand the tension members will tighten to help lift the chairs occupant up.

Because of the limitations of existing tensegrity technology our prototype was made out of readily available materials to simulate the functionality of potential production models. Our fully skinned prototype, shown in Figure 1, gives some idea as to the aesthetics of the final model. Figure 2 shows the working components of our prototype. Although they are not tensegrity they provide an example of our prototyping technique to model theoretical technology.

Safety

The tensegrity chair improvement improves user safety passively by creating a more ergonomic sitting environment.

Our Process

As with every prototype, our first step was to sketch our initial idea. Our very first sketch is shown in Figure 1. Next we built our first prototype to display our concept, which is shown in Figures 2 and 3.

Figure 1: Original Sketch

Figure 2: Seat Action of the first Prototype

Figure 3: Top View of First Prototype

Our Process 2

After building our first prototype we took it around to our interviews and collected extensive user feedback.

User Feedback

Shirley was very interested in the potential of new technology to help seniors sit and stand up from their chairs. She immediately thought of a friend she thought might use the product and referred us to him for an interview.

o We can market our products through networks of senior citizens.

Shirley thought the most important part of the product would be to lift the user vertically into standing  position.  She  said  she  had  seen  previous  “lift”  types  products  that  push  the  user  forward  in  the chair, but not up into standing position.

o This lead us to create our final CAD prototype that emulated a four bar mechanism instead of simply hinging at the front.

Joan thought the tensegrity power lift chair could be very useful if it was light enough to be carried around and used on chairs and benches when seniors are out of their house. In their house seniors can have extra cushions on their chair, railings, their walker sitting in front of their chair or simply take their time in standing up. In public places seniors have difficulty because the bench seat may be too low and others who are in a rush make it difficult for them to stand up.

o Because  of  Joan’s  feedback  we  focused  on  light  weighting  our  final  prototype  so  that  seniors  could carry it with them.

All of our interviewees wanted training in any technology that we would deliver.

o We need to watch out for the senior technology learning curve. Although Joan was pretty tech-savvy, her husband had no idea how to use a cell phone; this situation is pretty representative of her friends. For example, our social ball concept needs to be very intuitive,  or  seniors  just  won’t  use (and buy) it.

Joan’s  husband  was  injured  because  he  didn’t  realize  he  was  activating  the  motorized  chair  in  which  he was sitting. End result: they disconnected the motor.

o We need to offer AV feedback, allow easy experimentation and exploration, and be forgiving of mistakes as seniors learn to use our product.

During our final presentation, Yael mentioned that elderly people often develop sores from sitting still for too long.

o Our tensegrity lift assist can easily incorporate pressure-release technology, which tilts the user to shift their weight.

Our Process After our user feedback, we constructed our final prototype (Figure 4) and a 3D computer model of another version that was suggested during our user feedback stage (Figure 5).

Figure 4: Picture of our Final Prototype

Figure 5: Four-Bar Final CAD

Figure 6: Interview with Shirley Feedback about Chair

Figure 7a: Interview with Joan Feedback about Chair

Figure 7b: Interview with Joan Feedback about Chair

Figure 8: Final Presentation Feedback about Tensegrity Chair Assist

Conclusion:

We believe the tensegrity chair will assist many elderly users. The product is a simple, effective application of tensegrity technology, which utilizes all the inherent advantages of tensegrity technology.

Appendix I: Triple Bottom Line Analysis

Economic Analysis

Price of comparable items:

Wheelchair $250 and up. [1] Caregiver $18 and up per hour. [2] $26,000 per year for service four hours per day. US nursing home $76,680 per year. [3]

Market size:

In 2008 there were 38,690,169 seniors in the US, which is 12.7% of the population [4]. (This counts seniors as people over 65 years old). Assuming 10% of seniors would be interested in purchasing a tensegrity assist chair, that would provide 3.8 million potential customers. We will assume we could advertise to 90% of potential customers through AARP, and other senior organizations over a 5-year period. Of the customers who see advertising, 20% are estimated to purchase the product within this 5-year time span. This gives us 684,000 units sold over five years. Annualized, the sales are 136,800 units, or $20.52 million a year if the unit is priced at $150. This would make for a significant size company. With the approximated costs of $75 per unit, expenditures would be $10.26 million on hardware and assembly. Without considering overhead, the company would have $10.26 million in profits.

Next we will estimate overhead costs. The company would have 30 employees working in design, engineering, support, and HR at an average salary of $80,000 per year. This would mean a total of $2.4 million in annual employee salaries. Next we will assume $2.6 million in miscellaneous overhead costs. This will include building space for employees, factory buildings and other miscellaneous or unexpected costs.

Although these numbers seem optimistic, medical device companies have extremely high profit margins since the US puts so much money into medical care. This device is extremely low-priced for the medical industry, so it is likely many seniors would be likely to purchase the product to try it out. This five-year analysis is enough to justify the long-run economic viability of the company. There will be 50 million seniors by the year 2020, so the 10 or 20-year outlook for the company looks even more profitable.

Estimated Annual Money Streams

per Unit Aggregate Revenue $150 $20,520,000 Marginal Cost $75 ($10,260,000) Overhead ($5,000,000) Profits $5,260,000

Will consumers pay $150 for the device?

We estimate that the chair could eliminate a one hour midday caretaker visit over a six month period were the user is strong enough to walk but might need some assistance to stand. The chair would save users over $3,000 in a six month period. Further use and the facilitation of a certified secondary market would lead to greater savings for consumers and an increased market size. This brief analysis shows the chair pays for itself, so we expect users would purchase the device at this price.

Design for the Environment

Introduction

Along with economic and social concerns, environmental considerations are a top priority in the design process of our product. As a medical company it is essential that we are strongly responsible and act in an ethical way towards our users and the environment. Prospective investors and customers will be pleased with our commitment to environmental goals, which in turn furthers the economic viability of our company.

Product Lifecycle

1. Production 2. Distribution 3. Use 4. Recovery 5. Production

1. Production

Our prototype can be made of sustainable materials. To be considered sustainable, materials must be recyclable and the raw materials must be produced in an environmentally sensitive way.

2. Distribution

Besides using sustainable materials, our product can be manufactured in a sustainable way. Since our product will be relatively high value and be used in the medical field, it can be manufactured in the United States, and potentially the Bay Area. There is strong precedent for medical device manufacturing in the Bay Area. Although manufacturing in the US can have higher cost than manufacturing in Asia, there will be a strong return on our investment. Consumers highly value medical products that are safe and are willing to pay more for them. Manufacturing in the United States reduces the carbon footprint of our company by reducing shipping.

3. Use During use the machine will draw electric power from the grid. However, it will have a positive contribution to the environment by reducing the travel required of caretakers.

4. Recovery The tensegrity structure minimizes wear and increases product life. The increased life will enable the creation of a certified secondary market. This will enable the distribution of our product to users who would be priced out of owning new versions, while reducing end of life waste.

Life Cycle Analysis

The following information details the environmental impacts of the different parts and life cycle of our product. Using the online application SustainableMinds, we were able to estimate the value of our product’s  environmental  impact.  

Using Common Materials

Parts

Cotton – for covering the interior of the product for aesthetic appeal Polypropylene – to act as a case/enclosure for the bottom of the product Steel – from the actuators and for the rods Copper – from the actuators as well as connecting all the electrical parts together Ferrite – magnets inside actuators Polystyrene – foam padding Polyamide 6 – Nylon cables for the tensegrity structure Printed wired circuit board (Leaded)

o Resistors o Transistors o Capacitors

Rechargeable NiMH battery

Use Breakdown

Power o Power consumption used to charge battery Assuming that 2 hours a day is used to

charge the battery and 2190 hours of use for the life of the product, we get .002kW/hr

End of Life

End of Life was determined assuming that the entire product was sent off to a landfill Some of the parts only had one choice for its end of life scenario

o Cotton, surface mount circuit board, resistor, and battery had a choice of only recycling

Transportation Breakdown (Assuming the company is located in the Bay Area, and the customer resides in Berkeley, CA)

All electronics (surface mount pcb (not PB-free), resistors, capacitors, transistors) o From China

NiMH rechargeable battery o From China

Nylon Cables from Polyamide 6 o From China

Polystyrene Foam o From China

Polypropylene plastic body o From China

Cotton o From Georgia

Ferrite o From China

Steel o From China

Copper o From China

Using Environmentally Friendly Materials for a Reasonable Price

Parts

Organic Cotton – To cover the product for aesthetic appeal Carbonized Bamboo – As the casing for the product Steel – From the actuators Copper – From the actuators and to wire all electrical components together Ferrite – Magnets from the actuators Polyurethane – Memory Foam for padding Bamboo – For rods Recycled PET – As cables Printed wired circuit board (Lead-free)

o Resistors o Transistors o Capacitors

Rechargeable Li-ion Battery

Use Breakdown

Power o Power consumption used to charge battery Assuming that 2 hours a day is used to

charge the battery and 2190 hours of use for the life of the product, we get .002kW/hr

End of Life

End of Life was determined assuming that the customers would recycle the entire product due to its composition of recycled materials

Transportation Breakdown (Assuming the company is located in the Bay Area, and the customer resides in Berkeley, CA)

Bamboo o From bamboo farm in Colorado

Polyurethane foam (Memory Foam) o From Pittsburgh, PA

Organic Cotton o From Spartanburg, SC

Steel o From Pittsburg, PA

Copper o From Copper Mine in Arizona

Ferrite o From Iron Mine in Minnesota

Recycled PET o From Massachusetts

All Electronics o From Fremont, CA

After  looking  at  our  data  from  our  first  LCA  we  asked  ourselves  “In  what  ways  can  we  improve  the  environmental  impact.”  We  looked  at  some  of  the  big  factors  that  had  a  significant environmental impact: Materials, Transportation and End of Use. To address these issues we made a decision to make the product entirely in the US. This will not only reduce the price and environmental impact of transportation drastically, but also allows us to communicate with the manufacturers much easily and have a product much higher in quality. Another change we made was the material. We decided to create our product entirely out of recyclable and recycled products. This will simplify our users disposal of the product and thus improve the end of life drastically.

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Life Cycle Assessment of Tensegrity Chair

Environmentally Friendly Materials Common Materials

This graph shows the comparison of our initial (light green) and final LCA (dark green) using the online application Sustainable Minds. Across all categories we made improvements, which resulted in a 25%

decrease in environmental impact.

(a)

(b)

(c)

The images above are screenshots of (a) the software Sustainable Minds, (b) the excel data that was compiled and (c) the resulting pie charts made from our data

Sources:

Ulrich, Karl T., and Steven D. Eppinger. "Design for Manufacturing." Product Design and Development. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2012. 229-52.

Social Implications

The manufacture, use, and recycling of the tensegrity chair improvement will be made socially responsible through several methods. First locating our production facilities in the US will ensure that all workers are well paid and our methods are compatible with US regulations. Our product is socially responsible, at its core because it improves the lives of an often marginalized section of society.

Finally our repair and resale initiative increases accessibility of the product while maintaining a strong financial platform and reducing waste. The repair and resale initiative will accept used products from previous consumers who no longer need the product or want to upgrade to a newer version. Then we will repair the old product and bring it up to working standard and resell them at a very low price to lower income customers.

Triple Bottom Line Bibliography:

[1] Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=4075961

[2] Caregiverlist.com

http://www.caregiverlist.com/Rates.aspx

[3] Payingforseniorcare.com

http://www.payingforseniorcare.com/longtermcare/statistics.html

[4] CIA World Factbook

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.htm

Appendix J: Full Lessons Learned Through this entire project development many things were learned through the overall design

process and interdisciplinary teamwork experience. By alternating interview teams, each member contributed unique interview perspectives and experiences that influenced our concept generation and prototyping process. By increasing creative diversity, more original concepts were be produced. However, all the team members also had to have a working knowledge of the restrictions and capabilities of tensegrity technology, so attending enough technical lectures and interviews on a technology as novel as tensegrity was essential.

One of our biggest problems during the problem was that our project, unlike many others, was a solution in search of a problem. We partnered with NASA researchers to try to apply non-existent robotics technology to a completely different market space of elderly home health care. We had more than our share of stumbles, missteps, and pivots. One of the key lessons we learned was to keep focusing on the details; as we progressed through the product development process, we realized that we were thinking too abstractly. First concept generation, and then physical prototyping, forced us to think concretely and realistically.

During the final stages of the design process, prototype feedback interviews were essential for a feedback loop that would consistently improve our prototype concept. We needed to refocus our initial user needs as they were too broad. This was partly due to the fact that a solution was provided for us, however, we had no question to solve. Performing an LCA on our product definitely opened our perspective on the environment and taught us how much addressing it improved the quality of the Tensegrity Chair Lift. It showed us how much environmental impact is reduced through recycling and how secondary materials can be just as effective, even better in some cases, as using newly refined raw materials.

During the final stages of the design process, prototype feedback interviews were essential for a feedback loop that would consistently improve our prototype concept. We needed to refocus our initial user needs as they were too broad. This was partly due to the fact that a solution was provided for us, however, we had no question to solve.