Author: treytoms
Final Movie Thoughts
Overall I was pretty skeptical about making a movie instead of doing a final presentation. My group and I essentially no movie making/editing skills so we were worried we would not be about to relay our project in the way we wanted. Additionally having no syllabus/rules on what was to be included in the video was also kinda daunting. However we when actually got down to creating our storyboard we found that this lack of rules allowed us to get pretty creative with filming and how we presented our information.
Our movie was broken down into several parts: a brief introduction of what RA is, statistics on RA, needs and wants, clinical interview getting approval of our idea, iterations of our prototype and the flaws with each, our most recent prototype in action listing its advantages, and then finally what we wanted to improve on our design. Overall we found that the writing facts or statements on a whiteboard with a voice over was the most effective way to relay information.
There were definitely some struggles with making the movie. First of all ensuring we had good audio for the clips was sometimes difficult. I definitely think getting a small mike for each person would greatly improve this problem. Another issue we didn’t really foresee was the amount of time it took to edit the video. Editing took an enormous amount of time to get everything lined up with the voice-overs and to have everything perfectly in sync. Having no prior movie editing skills contributed to why it took so long. Perhaps some more debrief or one/two classes on editing would helpful. Finally publishing once you finished also took awhile which we didn’t expect, lucky for us though we weren’t close to the due time.
In the end, I did like presenting our project in this form. It really allowed us to get everything just right and allowed us to put so much more information in that we never would have accomplished in a presentation. It also was really nice not having the pressure of presenting on our shoulders on the day of the final. Additionally I now have something that I could possible show future clinicians or professors should I chose to go further with our prototype. Finally I really liked watching other groups’ videos as well because everyone had slightly different efficient approaches to presenting which not only made things more interesting to watch but also showed me some techniques I can definitely use in the future. Overall I was pretty impressed with everyone’s videos. The projects were all interesting and you could really tell people also put in a lot of time as well in order to get to this final stages.
From the first prototype to the current
Having developed our needs and wants, we began putting together building prototypes for our glove for RA. The overall design was to have strings attached to each finger that would be pulled in order to flex each finger and get the movement in the finger we believe would be beneficial to prevent buildup of fluid in the finger caused by RA.
In order to create the flexing motion we decided to use a servo motor attached to the wrist run by an arduino programmed to activate the servo to pull the strings attached to each finger at given intervals of time. Initially we went with a ski glove due to the stiffness it had, as while we had a mechanism to pull the fingers, we didn’t really have anything to extend the fingers back out. To help with this we cut pieces of milk jug and taped several pieces to the back of the fingers in order to provide extra stiffness to unflex the fingers once the servo quit pulling. In this prototype, thick fishing line, due to its strength and sturdiness , was attached to each finger and then all the lines were connected directly to the servo. However we quickly discovered that the lines would tangle up very quickly to the point where the fingers would not be flexed. Additionally we decided that the ski glove overall was just very hard to put on and too stiff to really effectively flex. So we decided to move on to another iteration.
For our second iteration, we decided to go with a cloth mitten as the main glove component to avoid the stiffness and hard use we found with the ski glove. We keep with the idea of tying line to each finger, however instead of using the thick fishing line, which often would deform after several uses, we used a type of thicker thread that did not deform but still provided solid strength. A component we added to this prototype was essentially adding an intermediate piece to the pulling mechanism. This piece was a washer where all of the finger strings were attached to it and then on the opposing side of it a single thread was tied to then be pulled by the servo. This effectively eliminated the thread from getting tangled by the servo that happened in the first prototype. A more flimsy plastic than the milk jug plastic was cut and was taped on the back of the mitten to provide the stiffness to allow the hand to flex back. We stayed with the servo and arduino pulling mechanism, however we moved the servo motor further up the forearm to allow more room for the thread to be pulled and allow more flexing of the fingers. A problem with this prototype was that because the thread was flimsy and the washer was not a good intermediate piece to keep the individual finger lines separate, the lines often got tangled up here. An additional problem we noticed was that the single line being pulled by the servo would often move out of straight line with the servo when the hand was relaxed where it often would then get caught on other parts of the prototype and not allow proper flexing of the fingers. Given these problems we moved on to our third iteration and current model.
For our third model, we found that the mitten was a good choice for glove as it allowed easy flexing of the fingers, it could be put on easy, and it was comfortable. We used the same plastic as the last iteration however we extended the plastic from just being on the fingers to going from the fingers all the way down to the wrist to cause more bending back of the hand to its original position after pulling. We also sewed the plastic inside the glove as it was more visually aesthetic. We replaced the intermediate washer piece with a smaller triangle piece which allowed all the finger strings to be attached at the base and the one string that would be pulled by the servo to be at the top point. This shape to be significantly more effective in preventing tangling and flexing the fingers. In order to prevent the string attached the servo from moving out of the correct position and getting attached to different areas of the prototype, we attached the end of a ziptie ( the part where the rest of the ziptie is feed into to lock it) to the servo and feed the thread through this before attaching it to the servo. This effectively kept the string in line (it was small enough where it easily passed through the ziptie piece and did not get stuck. The device was to easy to run repeatedly without any problems with the flexing mechanism occurring.
Overall this third model was not only more aesthetically pleasing but also significantly more effective than the first two models in providing the flexing function repeatedly.
Stages from an idea to prototyping
Having decided that our group wanted to focus rheumatoid arthritis, we began drafting the needs and wants for our future prototype. I truly believe that this was such an essentially step. It really requires to get a good background knowledge on your area of focus and really makes you think on a deeper level what you are trying to do with a potential prototype . This step helps you prioritize all that you want to accomplish with a prototype and essentially points you in the direction of where you should start in actually building a prototype. However another step that I found extremely valuable and personally believe should be done in any design process before the physical building of a prototype is going back to a expert in the field of the topic you are focusing on. While you may observe alot or ask some good general questions when you interact with this expert the first time. It is very beneficial to go back with your needs and wants where you can ask more specific questions to fine-tune points and just in general get a realistic idea on whether or not your design has potential. For our group, after shadowing we met up with Dr. Pudhorodsky, a rheumatologist who had 31 years of experience in his field! He was a huge asset as when we went through our needs and wants with him, he gave his honest opinion on what we shared with him which allowed us cut and add things to our idea and in the end really helped us decide exactly what we wanted to do with our prototype. Additionally, given the fact that he himself also suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, he was able to give us a personal and unique perspective of what RA patients have to deal with on a daily basis which had us thinking of issues to address that we had not even realized existed. Based off our own research and Dr. Pudhorodsky’s advise we came up with the needs for our prototype : 1. does not disrupt user’s sleep, 2. allows RA patient to move the hand in a normal fashion, 3. does not cause additional pain associated with the arthrities, 4. reduces swelling of the joints of the hand. 5. it must be comfortable to wear. Our wants were: 1. device should be less than $500 for both hands, 2. should be durable and maintain full functionality for at least 2 yrs despite movement during sleep(e.g. rolling over on it), 3. Should be easily adapted to different hand shapes and sizes, 4. Should last 10 hours on battery so it can function for even the longest night’s sleep without being plugged in, 5. Should be at most 1.75kg so is not noticeable during movement, 6. Should be rechargeable. Finally coming out with both these needs and wants, we began building our prototype.
From clinical shadowing to the design process
When first shadowing in clinics, I began to realize quickly how many clinical needs there were despite the fact that the hospital was very modern and high-end. I felt like every two minutes, I was writing down a new problem or object/system that could be improved where by the end of my shadowing shift I had pages of notes. But what I came to realize after analyzing my notes at a later time, alot of the smaller things I had written down were all just pieces of bigger problems. I realized then how important it is in the design process to take a step back and make sure you really see the heart of the need you are trying to solve; what is the good/usefulness in designing a product that only solves small percentage of a problem? From there, I began to filter down the clinical needs further by analyzing how significant a solution to them would be. While creating a design for a very specific need could be very beneficial, if its only solving a need for an also very specific/small population it may not be the best thing to truly focus on. I believe ,if it is in your abilities, attempting to solve a problem that exists for much larger population of people is much better path. A finally thing I did in was assess in generally some of the limitations that would exist if I did decide to design a solution for that need. Clearly if I could solve a very pertinent problem that would be beneficial but how likely would I be successful if it turns out I have to completely revamp the entire hospital system or have some other method that is clearly requires resources beyond those accessible to most people? Probably not very successful. I believe in order for a person to not waste their time and resources, they should be sure that they only attempt to solve a need that can be realistically addressed. While this may seem like common sense, I believe people often may forget this as they may come up with an idea they truly love and essentially be blinded by that love of their idea from making a logical decision.
Therefore after taking these things into account for my and my other group members’ perceived clinical needs, we finally we able to narrow down the clinical need we wanted to address and began the next steps of the design process.
Trey- first post
Hey, my name is Trey Toms and I hail from the glorious state of Georgia (I live in the suburbs of Atlanta). I am also a BME major following a pre-med track currently interested in studying either orthopedics or neurology/neurosurgery (I’m sure this is subject to change) in med school. I am taking this class because up to this point I have always enjoyed the design classes I have taken at UVA where I have personally created and built something from scratch as oppose to just doing endless math or physics problems for hours like in other engineering classes. Additionally the fact that we will be doing this in a clinical setting where we will be addressing real problems is also of great interest to me. What I hope to get out of this class is clinical experience and also more resources/skills/experience involved in designing/developing prototypes.
BME Design 