[Music Start Playing] [Title appears: "Freehand"]
[Title appears: "IDeA"]
[Title appears: "McMaster University"]
[Justin Rosner]: This all began as our year-end biomedical engineering project.
We'd spent the whole year discovering the fundamentals of engineering and it was time to apply these skills in real life.
We were assigned the task of innovating a solution to improve accessibility for various persons with disabilities.
[Ahmed Attia]: The idea behind freehand came to us when we first met our client Elissa. From a young age
she was diagnosed with primary generalized dystonia; a condition that causes involuntary muscular
fasciculations of the hand, speech, and feet.
Although she had a neurostimulator which saw her to see immense improvements and usability,
she still faced a lot of problems on campus.
Specifically, she told us as a political science student, that she had to use many of the on-campus computer labs.
Now when she was using the computer mice, her finger would start to curl
involuntarily, her thumb following suit, and eventually her wrist would flex inwards.
Now this would render the use of the computer mouse quite ineffective and given the technological reliance of our world
Elissa needed something that was fast, effective, and that she can use from day to day.
[Amanda Tomkins]: We completely re-designed in reverse engineered the conventional computer mouse.
Using the structure of a commercial bluetooth mouse,
we created a new way to navigate desktop computer which we like to call Freehand.
[New Music Starts Playing]
[Title appears: "The Design"]
Using only materials from a conventional mouse,
we have reconfigured everything to fit around a comfortable globe. By taking the shape of the user's hand, involuntary muscular spasms
do not affect free hands fundamental functions.
With the left and right mouse buttons sewn into the thumb, middle, and ring fingers,
Elissa can complete a left-click by contacting the conductive thread on the middle finger with a thread on her thumb
Similarly a right click can be completed by touching the ring finger with the thumb.
To increase efficiency, the glove was fabricated from a thin material to allow cursor navigation without sacrificing typing abilities.
With the infrared LED sensor encased within a 3D printed chassis, but still parallel to the work surface,
functionality for the user is analogous to a normal computer mouse eliminating any learning curves.
Wireless Bluetooth functionality eliminates constructions imposed by wires while allowing Elissa to use the surface of her choice.
Utilizing the internal components of a bluetooth mouse and
PLA 3d printing filament along with conductive thread the total price of freedom comes in about 38 dollars.
Making it cheap, affordable, and easy to replace if damage occurs.
[Elissa]: So I think Freehand can help me out with the
Difficulties I have using the computer, mouse at school especially.
Unfortunately, my fingers don't work quite the right way. And so using a computer mouse and lab at McMaster is difficult
So with this I can easily put it into a port, and use something that's built for me in particular.
[Title appears: "Freehand"]
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