Veda Chase

Saras Glove
The intent of this project is to create a communication/writing device for a girl with cerebral palsy.

Phase 1
Research and Material Understanding

To start, we must understand the limitations and abilities of Sara. Through the website her family provides I got information regarding her life story, personality and medical state.FreindsOfSara
My professor also provided us with multiple video documentation of her doing various tasks, so we might gain a visual understanding of her bodily movements. This understanding was enhanced by a skype call with Sara and her Mother, where many nuances of her movement were shown and explained. Below are my notes on understanding Saras body.

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1N
12N6N

The next step was to learn the technology I was to use in fashioning her device.My professor guided us through some basic lessons on soft circuit building and arduino programming.
This got me familiar with the mediums and materials of this project. I sorted through them and picked out what I thought would be useful modes of communication.

2N 7N

Phase 2
Initial Thoughts

I was drawn in to the idea of a secondary object to Saras communication device that simply enabled writing. This concept involved a custom writing device, and an application that would be compatible with her writing style. Because of Saras limited movements, she requires a completely customized writing technique. The writing tool she required would have to be soft to protect from her more jerky movements towards her face, sturdy in her fairly weak hand, and requiring little movement other than the formation of letters. She is accustom to her mother moving the paper for her since her writing style is stationary. So I figured this item would need to pair with some sort of automated momentous paper. The concept I came up with was for a custom writing stylus, that  could be softly wrapped around Saras hand, and paired with an ipad application that would move her paper based on the rate of her hands gyrations.

3N 4N 5N

Phase 3
Meet the Group Concept

Ive joined with my peers Tiana and Aditi to try and solve this glove concept. Our initial brainstorming lead us to concentrate on Saras abilities to create hand signs. We beleive through the formation of hand signs we might be able to create a system of sounds Sara can use to communicate basic yes/no, as well as specific needs she communicated efficiently such as having to the use the restroom or have her saliva suctioned.
My idea for the writing device is also loosely involved as a compliment component to our glove design. her glove must communicate her immediate needs, but that her right to self expression through more complex means such as writing or drawing must also be met and that is where the external device comes in. However our concentration is mainly on hand sign communication.

Though our ultimate goal is to access sound, our initial prototype will use LEDs for the sake of ease and data collection. At the moment we are mainly concerned at seeing what hand forms Sara can consciously put herself into and how we might use those to dictate her commuications.
The functionality of the glove will be achieved through arduinio, LEDs and flex sensors placed on two of her fingers.

10n 11N