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Touch the world

Blind people rely on screen reader to read the content on the screen. The screen reader works perfectly with text, but for images and complicated websites, it cannot well present the content. The blind people have no idea what is really on the picture, or how does the site lay out.



The proposed assistive technology is to project whatever on the screen to a tactile uneven surface, along with touch sensible interactive screen reader. So the blind people can use their hands to have a much better idea of what is on the screen.


(Image reference: Ubi Interactive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu2XH5p_hMM&feature=youtu.be)

Furthermore, for real world scene, it can also be converted and projected to the tactile surface. It can be portable, so blind people can put it in the pocket and travel to anywhere, enjoy the beautiful world just as everyone else.

Lip-reading Glasses

Though many people with hearing disability wear hearing aid, they usually still need to rely on lip-reading to assist them understand what people are saying. But this becomes extremely hard when they are in group communication (e.g. meeting, group lunch, group chat, etc.).  Even speech recognition techniques can not handle the multi-people speech very well.

This proposed assistive technology combines speech recognition and lip-movement recognition through a pair of glasses, and present the content in front of deaf people's eyes through augmented reality.

Stain removal laundry

Sometimes when you left an obvious stain on the clothes, simply dropping it in the washing machine can't remove it perfectly. Many people do a manual pre-wash by scrubbing the stain part with some particular detergent. But this is not very convenient.

So the design problem is, how to remove the particular stain perfectly using laundry machine without a manual pre-wash?

For example, we can signal the stain parts with some detergent chips, with the corresponding detergent that can efficiently remove the particular stain. Then add an extra pre-wash cycle to the laundry machine, scrubbing the stain parts hard, followed by the regular washing cycle. So the stain parts are washed twice and removed perfectly, while the other parts are washed only once without too much energy cost.

Watch out! You are in my way! - To design a better car horn

This is a car steering wheel with the horn at the center. To use the horn, one has to use one hand to push hard at the button at the center, and use the other hand to hold tightly the steering wheel.

But, when we have to use the horn, we are usually in an urgent traffic condition, and we want to use the horn to warn others to pay attention. But under such cases, it is not safe or convenient to free one hand to push the horn button. People tend to hold tight the steering wheel with both hands to make the car more under control.

Here is the problem: how to design the car horn so that people can use it naturally and conveniently under urgent cases?

Here are some brainstormed design ideas. They are not necessarily be practical or efficient, but they are recorded as a process of design thinking.

- The horn button can be hidden inside the steering wheel rim, activated by strong hand gripping. Under urgent cases, people tend to grasp the wheel rim tightly, which would automatically trigger the car horn.


- The horn button can be located at one side of the steering wheel, as highlighted in the red circle above. So people just need to free one finger instead of freeing one hand.



- Similarly, the horn button can be hidden inside the brake. Only when the brake is pressed hard, would the horn button activate.


- Similar to blind spot detection, the car can automatically detect dangerous occlusion or maneuver, can use horn to warn the driver or other cars/pedestrians.
- The horn can also be activated by the shout (or dirty words :P) of the driver. Most drivers would say some particular words under urgent traffic cases. Each individual can configure these "activation words" to use them to activate the horn.

Design problems in everyday life (1)

While cutting food, we use the non-dominant hand to hold the food, and the dominant hand to cut. Maybe we can design some tools to free the non-dominant hand?



In a crowded parking lot, the only thing that determines how long we would find a parking spot is LUCK! We just wander from one aisle to another, and go back to see if any car has just left. Maybe we can design some application in the cell phone that would navigate people to the available parking spots, with real-time information update?



What if you have an important phone call while you are in public, and you don't want others to hear what you say? Or in a noisy place where you can't hear the other person on the phone? How to make your voice heard by the other person on the phone exclusively?
Maybe we can make some design that allows your voice only to be received by the phone, and the phone can also filter away noise other than your voice.

Where are the train stations? - Design critique of Amtrak website

One day I was making an amtrak reservation, and found this weird design.

While selecting destinations, I would like to know where are those stations (e.g.: How far is it from  "San Francisco - Financial District" to my destination). After clicking the location icon in the red circle, I expect it to show a map of the stations, but it pops up a screen showing the station codes...

- It uses this familiar location icon, but doesn't meet the expectation
- The search query doesn't provide an easy way for user to find out the location of stations. I have to search online or on google map, which requires much more working memory.

It could be much better if it allows people to enter their specific destination address, and shows an interactive map with all the nearby stations on it.