Post IvP Seminar

1. Improve on the existing prototype:

Have some elderly to try the exercises and adjust them

2. Have another different idea to use Arduino

3. Two projects: existing prototype & an improved one

HW

12 Solutions Using

SCAMPER
Force-fitting

Problems the elderly face

Problems my grandmother faces in her daily life

- She has hearing problems, so she can't hear the phone ringing or the door bell very well

- She is forgetful at times, and sometimes forgets that she is boiling water or cooking, leading to forgetting to turn off the fire (someone will usually remind her though)

- She doesn't have good balance, hence she has a higher risk of slipping on wet floors after mopping, or in the bathroom

- She doesn't have much strength, hence it is difficult for her to carry heavy things like grocery bags, especially when going up the staircase

- Her eyesight isn't very good, so she needs especially good lighting to read the newspaper and other things

- Her body isn't as flexible as before, so she can't bend down to cut her toenails very well

- Since her eyesight isn't that good anymore, she can't see the expiration date on food products, hence she may be at risk of consuming expired food

- Her hand shakes, so she can't really pull a thread through a needle well for sewing

- The elderly who sit on wheelchairs may be at risk of falling down from it when they are going down slopes

- The elderly who have dementia may forget how to go home sometimes

(The last two don't concern my grandmother but she said it for old folks in general. so yeah.)

:)

Another problem xD

Hehe so anyway I know we've already sorted through the problems and everything but I just felt like posting this up:
When we take ice cream out of the freezer, the ice cream is really hard and hard to scoop out, and we have to wait for some time before it is soft enough to be scooped out easily.

Draft Session

Our focus: Active Aging
Things we talked about today:
1. Needs of the solution
2. Adaptation vs Innovation

Arduino session 2

What we did today:

pill box -> like this, except ours only had one side.

- we were given a pill box

How to let old people remember to take their pills?

Our solution: 

For example, when it is Monday, and the elderly person (I shall call him Grandpa Bob) needs to take 2 pills, the compartment labeled "Monday" will light up, and there will be two buzz sounds to alert Grandpa Bob that he has to take two pills.

Similarly, if it is a Tuesday and Grandpa Bob has to take 3 pills, the compartment labeled "TuesdaY" will light up and there will be three buzzes.

- To make the compartment supposedly light up, we used the Arduino software to program the LEDs to light up.

Ok it's quite blur but you can see the bright green thing among all the wires right?
That's the LED light :D

- Then Nadiya went missing for half an hour and me and Joh Ann had to go look for her xD apparently a teacher who recognised her engaged her in a nice friendly chat xD that lasted for half an hour.

Yeah :D

Arduino Workshop 1

Arduino
- the brain of a device
-cost of an arduino -> $30/10/5
Projects done with arduino
-knock clock
-pong game
-water wastage meter

Different types of shields
can combine

Link with problems
We can use arduino when you have problems finding seats in the hawker centre.

*Go to Raffles Room for the next session
Each pair will have an arduino to work on.

Hits and Hot Spots :)

Identifying Hits

Problems we find interesting:

1. On vehicles such as buses, we often doze off to sleep. When we are sleeping, we would want something to lean on. The only thing we can lean on is the window. However, the window is hard and this is really uncomfortable. My own experience was very similar to this. The school bus takes more than 40 minutes to reach school and I usually pass this time by sleeping. The problem is, I kept banging my head on the window resulting in jolting up from sleep and a headache. I would really like to have something to lean on while sleeping.

2. In public transportations (e.g. bus, mrt), I found that there was no space for my bags. Therefore, I had to carry them on my lap, which was very uncomfortable, with limited space of movement. This especially affected those with heavy grocery bags and this caused them to rest the bags on the floor, which was not very clean.

3. When I am eating in the canteen or even at home, there would sometimes be flies around our food, and even after I've swatted them away with my hand, they still come back after a while. People naturally don't carry fly swatters with them everywhere they go to eat, hence I feel  like there should be some sort of device that can ward off flies and can be carried around conveniently.

4. When we are in school and need to tie up our hair, there are times when our rubber band breaks and we do not have a spare one to use. It would be convenient for us to have something we can use to attach the ends of the broken rubber band back together.

5. There are no special equipment in the bathrooms for the elderly at the elderly flats

6.  Some old folks need help with taking their medication

7. During food distribution at the elderly flats,  the hanger sometimes drops off and there is nowhere to hang the packet of food

8. When the elderly mop the floor, they can have backaches if they bend down for too long, thus having to take frequent breaks.

9. Trays of food may be too heavy sometimes for us to carry to our tables.

10. While eating at a hawker centre, leaves may fall on our food.

11. There are drains near the stalls and while we are taking out our money to pay for food, coins may drop into the drains

12. There is a lack of storage space for hawkers

13. Hawkers have problems managing water conservation

14. At the hawker centre, disposable plates and tissue can get blown around which is also very disgusting, especially if the plates have leftover food on them

Identifying Hot Spots

- Hawker centre
- Elderly Flats.
- Public transportations (bus, mrt etc)
- School

Hawker Centre	Elderly Flats	Public Transportations	School
Trays of food may be too heavy sometimes for us to carry to our tables.	There are no special equipment in the bathrooms for the elderly at the elderly flats	On the bus or mrt, we often want to sleep, and prefer to have something to lean on. The only thing we can lean on is the window which is hard and really uncomfortable.	There would sometimes be flies around our food  in the canteen, and they land on our food, making our food dirty.
There are drains near the stalls and while we are taking out our money to pay for food, coins may drop into the drains	Some old folks need help with taking their medication	In public transportations, there isn’t much space for my bags with  the limited space of movement.	Sometimes when our rubber band breaks and we do not have a spare one to use.
While eating at a hawker centre, leaves may fall on our food.	When the elderly mop the floor, they can have backaches if they bend down for too long, thus having to take frequent breaks.
There is a lack of storage space for hawkers sometimes	During food distribution at the elderly flats,  the hanger sometimes drops off and there is nowhere to hang the packet of food
Hawkers have problems managing water conservation sometimes
At the hawker centre, disposable plates and tissue can get blown around which is also very disgusting, especially if the plates have leftover food on them

Problem 8

Whenever we use our umbrellas in the rain and then go indoors, there aren't many places to hang our umbrella while it is wet.

Tips on finding problems

Commandments of Brainstorming

• Do not judge
• Have wild ideas (the wilder it is, the better)
• Go forth and multiply many ideas
• Begat more ideas from ideas of others

Filtering Question

• Is it really a problem?
• Is the problem worth solving?
• Does it affect many people?
• Can the problem be solved in the IvP context? (your ability)

Generic Problem Statement

• What is causing the problem?
• Who experiences this problem?
• Where does the problem occur?
• When does the problem happen?
• Why does the problem happen?
• How does the problem affect the community?

2nd trip to Adam Rd Hawker Centre :)

What we did:
- Helped to clean up the tables and such
- Interact with the cleaners/consumers and asked them questions

Cleaner's thoughts:
- works very happily at the hawker centre
- has no problems
><

Consumers' thoughts
- Thinks that everyone should clean up after themselves to help make the work of the cleaners easier
- People need to show more consideration to the cleaners
- Some people finish eating and just leave their plates with leftover food and tissue on their table, which is very disgusting
- Disposable plates and tissue can get blown around which is also very disgusting, especially if the plates have leftover food on them
- There is a problem finding seats sometimes
- Many birds often come for leftover food after people leave, which is not good
-  There could perhaps be a cleaning station where consumers can return trays/plates to so cleaners do not need to walk around so much
- Maybe there could be some sort of dishwashing machine?

Our (IVP students') thoughts:
- It was hard to remember which stalls all the plates and trays come from so we had a few problems in returning them
- We faced a bit of difficulty in moving the trolleys around due to some lack of space

...

Yay :D

Visit to Adam Road Hawker Centre, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Elderly flats at Holland

Adam Road Hawker Centre

Problems:

1. Slippery floor
2. Trays may be too heavy sometimes
3. Many leaves were falling near our food
4. There are some platformed grounds that people may not notice and fall because of them
5. After "choping" our seats/tables and going to buy food, we might lose track of where our seats/tables are as the hawker centre is quite big
6. There are drains near the stalls and while we are taking out our money to pay for food, coins may drop into the drains
7. There is a lack of storage space for hawkers
8. Hawkers have problems managing water conservation
9. The cooking takes too long sometimes

Ngee Ann Polytechnic

Nice innovations/inventions we found:

1. Geriatric chair

- used for feeding the elderly convenientlyThe front of a motorcycle for wheelchairs

2. The front part of a motorcycle for wheelchairs

- as people in wheelchairs must use their arms to push themselves around, it gets tiring

- this innovation helps them move around with a motor, thus they won't be tired out

3. Pill sorter

- helps elderly folk without good memory to take their medication by sorting the pills out and alerting them whenever it is time for their pills.

4. Hand exercise for patients

- for stroke patients whose fingers may curl up and be stuck to their palms permanently, complication medical issues

- it straightens and stretches their hands

5. Zero Energy Cooker

- uses green energy to cook food

- efficient solar energy collector: foldable

-environmentally friendly

6. Innovative oven

- cooks finger foods for students in just 6 min and dispenses them like a vending machine

7. Mover's trolley

- used to carry heavy items up staircases

- holds the items using an elastic band and the three wheels help to move up steps

8. Toy washing machine

- cleans bacteria from toys

- dries the toys quickly in the machine so children can get the toys back quickly

Holland Flats

good points:

1. There are handles along the corridors for elderly folk

2. There are ramps for wheelchairs

3. There are lifts on every floor

4. There are emergency sirens for elderly

problems:

1. There are no special equipment in the bathrooms for the elderly

2. The houses smell as there is no ventilation

3. Some old folks need help with taking their medication

4. During food distribution, the hanger sometimes drops off and there is nowhere to hang the packet of food

5. There are no washing machines for the elderly to use, so washing their clothes may be inconvenient for them

6. When the elderly mop the floor, they can have backaches if they bend down for too long, thus having to take frequent breaks.

Problem 7

There might be times when our alarm clock spoils in the middle of the night, and as we are depending on it to wake us up in the morning for school, we could end up waking up late and beng late for school. Thus, without having to use multiple alarm clocks just to make sure we are woken up, it would be convenient to have a way to fix this problem.

Problem 6

When we are in school and need to tie up our hair, there are times when our rubber band breaks and we do not have a spare one to use. It would be convenient for us to have something we can use to attach the ends of the broken rubber band back together.

Problem 5

When we want to use our earphones or earpieces, the cord may sometimes be very tangled and we have difficulty untangling it. I think that it would be nice to have an invention that could help us untangle the cord efficiently and swiftly.

Problem 4

When I am eating in the canteen or even at home, there would sometimes be flies around our food, and even after I've swatted them away with my hand, they still come back after a while. People naturally don't carry fly swatters with them everywhere they go to eat, hence I feel  like there should be some sort of device that can ward off flies and can be carried around conveniently.

Problem 3

In public transportations (e.g. bus, mrt), I found that there was no space for my bags. Therefore, I had to carry them on my lap, which was very uncomfortable, with limited space of movement. This especially affected those with heavy grocery bags and this caused them to rest the bags on the floor, which was not very clean.

Problem 2

When students pinning up their school badges and name tags, sometimes they would get pricked by the sharp point. My experience was that my friend had quite a lot of bleeding when the sharp point poked into her skin and this is not good. Hence, I felt that the badges should be changed, or else more students might have more injuries.

Problem 1

On vehicles such as buses, we often doze off to sleep. When we are sleeping, we would want something to lean on. The only thing we can lean on is the window. However, the window is hard and this is really uncomfortable. My own experience was very similar to this. The school bus takes more than 40 minutes to reach school and I usually pass this time by sleeping. The problem is, I kept banging my head on the window resulting in jolting up from sleep and a headache. I would really like to have something to lean on while sleeping.