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Improvement is key - Week #5

A project log for KnotKicker

An object to help disabled people make their laces.

alais-santos-clouxalais santos-cloux 04/30/2024 at 14:170 Comments

In this session, we tried to improve our last two gadgets. 

To recap, for now we have 2 differents projects. 

The first object goal is to allow the kid to untie his shoes, for that we created a ring and a ring holder. The ring holder goes on the hand of the kid thanks to an elastic, the platform has a rectangular shape to avoid the ring holder from moving while using it, for it to be as stable as possible. We then have a ring which will go on the lace when tying them which will then be used as "second hand" when untying thanks to the ring holder. 

Till now we have faced 2 problems: 

1) We didn't scale the ring holder properly, it was 10x to big. and the ring holder couldn't contain the ring it didnt slide in easily.

2) the printing lines weren't optimal so the ring holder broke

this session we worked on solving those problems. 

The second object's goal is to allow the kid to tie his shoe easily following the "normal" way, for that we have a base which goes on the shoe and a box . 

Here are pictures to explain how it works: 

The problem with this prototype is that it takes more time for him to do it like that and some steps aren't very easy. That is why we are working on a last prototype which will make it easier and quicker for him. 

This last project is a lace with magnets, that way the kid has to do the first knot (which he can do) then the loops are done by magnets and he re does a knot. This way it's easy to do the laces but also to untie them as he only has to pull one string to undo the lace and to take un chain the magnets. 

However, the problem is in inserting the magnets in a way that it always works and for them to hold during the knot period and easily pull out when needed. 

The design is still a work in progress. 

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