Team Danazaur

Feedback from Prototype #1

Questions for Cortney:

  1. How much is Sara able to move her thumb and/or other fingers? Sara isn’t able to voluntarily move her fingers very far, maybe a few centimeters in each direction. But the movement varies a lot. In terms of our glove, Sara wasn’t able to make a connection to the two patches of conductive fabric on index and thumb fingers.
  2. How much movement does Sara have with her wrist? Very little to none. She has more movement with her arm/elbow. An example was that Sara lifted her arm to feel the fabric of one of the gloves.  (I followed up asking if she was able to bring her arm down from her face, and Cortney replied that she doesn’t think Sara can intentionally move her arm down). Arm movements also depend on her reflex.
  3. How much movement does Sara have with her right hand? Sara uses her right hand to point to her throat to ask for suction (this might be an indicator that she has more intentional control with her right hand).
  4. Of all the gloves Sara tried on, which aspects of those were the most successful? Why? In terms of fitting, most of the gloves were too large, especially the finger lengths were too long. The one with velcro around her hand for guided writing was successful in holding her hand in place so that she could write. One of the gloves with LEDs on the back was successful because it had the most sensitive feedback that made different color values change depending on how she moved her hand.

 

Instructions for Sara’s Glove

For prototype #1, we wanted to find out if Sara would be able to touch her thumb and fingers together. We attached LED lights for feedback, hoping that it will give us a better understanding of Sara’s range of motion. In the future, the lights will be replaced with sound.

  1. Put on glove on her left hand
  2. Attach battery pack (in blue pouch) to the velcro at the bottom of the glove
  3. Connect battery wire to port on the LilyPad (should hear a click)
  4. Touch thumb and index finger together (observe if LED #1 turns on)
  5. Touch thumb and middle finger together (observe if LED #2 turns on)

 

Questions we are looking to get answered:

  1. Does the glove fit, and is it comfortable for Sara to wear? (if not, please tell us how we can improve the glove to make it fit her hand better)
  2. If Sara is not able to reach the end of her index or middle fingers, is there another place on her hand that would be more comfortable for her?
  3. How does the battery pack fit on her wrist? Is there another place on her hand that might be better suited?

pic_instructions

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