Xinqian (Vivian) Xiang
Mechanical Engineer/ Product Designer
Ironman Rehab Glove
Ironman Rehab Glove is an innovative therapeutic and assistive device for an nine-year-old boy with C5 spinal cord injury. It was the final design project for my course Rehabilitation Design and Engineering. I contributed to ideation, initial and final design, mockup development and prototype building.
User Needs Analysis
• C5 spinal cord injury
• Can raise arms and bend elbows
• No functionality in wrists or fingers
• Uses manual wheelchair, but tires easily
• Active family: basketball, bowling league
• Help actively participate in basketball and bowling
• Independently use
• Take advantage of present functionality
• Allow gripping of ball
• Human
• Activity
• Context
• Assistive
Technology
• Interface
Refined Inspiration
After brainstorm, we came up an idea of ironman glove for the boy to help him. For most children, ironman is their hero who is brave, strong, fascinated and passionate. We wanted our patient take this device as his friend and used it without any trouble with his current wheelchair.
Target Market
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Safty
-
Take advantage of present muscle functionality
-
Active and independent role in basket ball and bowling
-
Versatile (i.e. different sized balls)
-
kid-friendly aesthetic
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Affordability
-
Mayhelp with wheelchair propulsion
-
Safty
-
Affordability
-
Take advantage of present muscle functionality
-
Active and independent role in basket ball and bowling
-
Versatile (i.e. different sized balls)
-
kid-friendly aesthetic
-
Mayhelp with wheelchair propulsion
High Resourse
Environment
Low Resourse
Environment
Our design presents an assistive device that is a mechanical rehabilitative extension of the user's motor skills and control to grasp and interact with objects in their environment, therapeutically allowing him to perform physical tasks independently with his caretakers, play basketball with his friends or bowling with his family. The materials of the devices can be changed according to the local resources which allowing for natural variability in environmental conditions.
Feasibility and Utility
The rehabilitation device should meet the his need and we were supposed to take both high resource as Philadelphia, PA (Urban, middle income for area), and low resource environments as Singapore (Urban, middle income for area), into consideration.
