The intention behind this project was to help senior citizens in their mobility. The bed is the place they spend most of their time in, and the movement of stepping out of bed, is tough as age kicks in. This mechanism senses pressure movement of elbows and lifts the bed to make it easier for elderly to step out of bed. It also ensures the rolling movement does not trigger the lifting of the bed.
The context is designed in the bedroom for elder people. Research indicated the major reason for fatal accidents amongst elderly was falls. There is a fall leading to deaths every 19 min in the United States. We decided to design and implement a ecosystem within the bedroom to resolve this problem. We did this using s 3-step approach which each product connected to each other and acting as a trigger. This connected ecosystem ensures fall detection to its best possible extent.
The product is designed to prevent the lack of support while getting on and off the bed. It comprises of pressure sensors which detect the pressure generated by the elbows while trying to get off from the bed. As soon as it detects the pressure, it lifts the bed to an optimum level for the elderly to get off the bed easily. It also ensures all other bodily movements such a rolling around to either sides of the bed, does not trigger the lifting movement of the bed.
We designed the entire layout of the bedroom , with the bed, mattress, pillow, and bedsheet. The Bed was made out of laser cutting wood, and the mattress and pillow cushions were made out of cloth knitting. The pressure sensing was demonstrated using three rectangular pieces of soft material enclosed within aluminum foil which acts as a conductor of electric charge. The soft material within was cut from inside in a pattern to allow the circuit completion only while exerting pressure at points where the pattern was cut.
We learnt the emotional aspect of the project which was the hesitation elderly feel while calling out for help. The idea was to design products keeping in mind that the burden and hesitation the elderly feel needs to be removed by making the use of the connected IoT system which automates the assistance required in a subtle manner making sure the help is address on a timely manner without hurting any sentiments of the elder people.
In future iterations, we would like to explore the bed pressure sensors while considering the effect of activities like waking up half-way to grab something, reaching out for a glass of water etc. This will make the bed sensor more intuitive towards the elderly person's needs and behavior.
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