For the last month, our team has focused our concept generation on the notion that our device had to be PPE-attachable and as unobtrusive to the responsibilities and duties of roadside workers as possible. However, our sponsor brought up an idea during today’s meeting that had us thinking:
What if our product becomes PPE?
What if instead of just assuming that this device must be attachable to standard PPE and must conform to the combinations and limitations of that, what if the device was inducted into the canon of FDOT PPE? This new insight allows for two concepts to be more seriously considered: a wristband device and the bone-conduction earpiece. While these designs are not without their flaws, as they are less ergonomic than those presented previously, they do give more options for what we can do moving forward. We also explored how a clip-on device could have its weight distributed, and how we can still maintain the greatest flexibility and comfort without having it weigh down the vest.
As we near our PDR event, which is confirmed for October 14th, we have four concepts currently: a wristband, an earpiece, an all-in-one box that can be flexibly attached to the underside of a helmet’s brim or the collar of the PPE vest, and a small collar-clip attachment that holds the actuators, with a wire running to a belt-attached power bank to redistribute weight. We decided to toss the directional-vest idea as this did not seem feasible for ergonomics, cost, or worth the effort considering workers should just make any evasive action once they process the alert.
We’ve also had to consider aspects of the project such as how the units will be charged and managed at the end of a shift. Will they all be plugged into the wall via a multi-cable USB-C cord, or should they use lithium coin batteries? As for connecting to Team 6’s computer vision sensors, should we plan on having 6–8 Awearable devices come preconnected and configured to a single sensor, or should we plan on presenting a downscaling and upscaling mechanism for connecting a dynamic number of devices to the sensor? All questions that demand consideration as we near the halfway point of the semester.