Kids Can
The Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children provides special education to children with physical and learning disabilities. The Kids Can team has partnered with the physical education classes at the school to create devices that facilitate participation in the class. Specifically, for the pulling and grasping unit, the team has created light-up flags and a ball with lights and sounds.
Flag:
A string of red LEDs (connected in parallel) is attached to a battery that can be turned on and off. The battery is stored in a cylinder at the bottom of the flag. For children with greater disabilities, the lights on the flag make the flag more attractive than the plain flag, shown in comparison in the video above. The cylinder at the bottom of the flag holds the battery but also provides a greater grip for children who lack finer motor skills and makes noise when it hits the gym floor, which is good feedback for children who are visually impaired.
Personal Contributions:
I was responsible for designing and 3D-printing the cylinders. I hand-sewed LEDs and velcro to each of the flags and shared the responsibility with my teammates for sewing the flags together.
Ball:
The ball is controlled via a radio remote that can turn on the light and the sound. The video above is the second revision of the ball; however, the ball has since been simplified so that one button turns the lights on and off and the other does the same for the sound. The light and the sound for the ball serve the same purpose as for the flags. In the second revision of the ball, the rubber cage serves to hold the foam core that contains the electronics in place and provide a way to hang the ball. Revision three of the ball is currently in progress with the following goals:
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reduce the weight of the ball
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have more diffuse lights instead of specific points
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allow the ball to bounce
Personal Contributions:
In creating a second copy of the second revision ball, I was responsible for soldering lights together as well as soldering some of the internal components, such as the speaker amplifier and the battery contacts. With my teammates, I constructed the ball by placing the electronics in the foam core and gluing the rubber cage together around the core.