Self-Powered Shopping Cart

Problems of Current Shopping Cart:

1- Driving Problem

     – hard to push/pull

2- Controling Problem

     –Small Wheels

     – Size/weight

3- Emptying Problem

     –Deepness

New Design Description:

SELF-POWERED SHOPPING CART

The new design has additional features to the current one in order to turn the current design into an inclusive design. The new shopping cart is designed to serve all people without discrimination of elderly or handicap people.

FEATURES:

• BIGGER WHEELS: It is hard to control small wheel so the size of wheel is increased. 
• ADJUSTABLE HEIGHT: The height of the shopping cart can be adjustable with button from the control panel, that is placed the holder part of the shopping cart. Thanks to this features, the user can pick the most comfortable height.
• POWER SOURCE: The power needed to do function on the control panel will be placed under the cart. It will be rechargeable. 

• SLIDING BARS: One of the biggest problem is emptying basket of the shopping cart, you have to lay down, or carry some heavy things that you bought to the accounter's desk. With this additional features, when the user press eject on the control panel, the bars on bottom surface of the shopping cart will start to slide toward to the front and all the thing inside the basket will be emptied by this option. User do not need to transfer anything . Also even though the user can the height of the cart, when the EMPTY button is clicked, it goes to the same height as the accounter's desk.
  
• SENSORS:
  
  
  
  
  This features is thought to help the blind people originally, however it can serves to all user. 
  When the shopping cart will too close to an object, it will make a warning and slow the cart.
  
  
  
  
  
• CONTROL PANEL: The control panel will be placed to the holder of the shopping cart
  
  
  
  
  Left-top area is used for the adjustment of the height of shopping cart.
  
  
  
  
  

  Left-bottom area is used to empty the basket by adjusting the height to default and activating sliding bars. Oppositely, close the basket again after emptying.
  Middle-Top is used to control movement of the cart by using joystick like tool.
  Middle-Bottom is used to show the battery charge. If the charge is too low it will be read and lock the cart not to use.
  Right Area is used for navigation inside the market. It will show where you are, and general outline of the market to find easily what you are looking for.
  The control panel will use Braille System, which is a language using dots for the blind people reading so that they can also understand functions to the control panel.

Self Powered Shopping Cart:

Appeals to almost everyone:

     Height adjustability (=deepness of the basket)

         - Prevents backpain :elder, people with wheelchair, shorters, tallers, etc.

     Easy control (big wheels, extended handle) on faulty floors

         - Not require too much effort :elder, women, frails, etc.

    Easy discharge (to car, counter, etc.)

         - No pain, no effort :for everyone

    Self-powered (battery)

         - No need to push-pull : for everyone

    Operable control panel (simple, large icons-labels, helpful)

    Not require special skill, but hands:people with no arm ???

    Navigation (Map) :you are here – structure of the market 

    Braille System :Blind (over every label)

    Accident Prevention : Sensors (front and both corners)

Inclusive Design

Definition of inclusive design:

Inclusive design is one of many terms currently in use in built  environment professions, the building industry, and in the wider arena of local and central government. It shares a similar  background and has similar aims to many other terms such as universal design, design for all, lifespan design, and most recently, 'respect for people' and designing for diversity. Inclusive Design is a process that results in inclusive products or  environments which can be used by everyone regardless of age, gender or disability. Inclusive design relies on a holistic and sustainable understanding of the responsibilities, of those who shape the built environment in relationship, to those who populate it.

Different Inclusive Design Examples: 

EXAMPLE 1: StairLift

How it is work:

Our lifts are designed for fast, easy installation. The reason our lifts are so easy to install is because we do the hard part at the factory. The carriage is pre-installed on a short section of track. Installation is not much more complex than connecting a length of track, attaching it to the stairs, bolting down the seat, and plugging it in. Our installation instructions are clearly illustrated and very detailed, plus expert advice is never more than a phone call away.

Features: 

• Simple installation
• Installs on either side of staircase 
• Mounts to the stairs - not the wall 
• Travel up to 20 feet 
• Extruded aluminum track is factory cut to fit your stairs 
• Track only takes up 10” of staircase and chair folds to 14” from wall 
• Unit-controls mount on either armrest 
• Foot or finger-activated call controls for wall or floor mounting at top and bottom of stairs, or optional wall-mounted call/send controls 
• Constant-pressure controls stop the lift the instant you release the control 
• Limit switches automatically shut unit off at the top and bottom of the stairs 
• Footrest safety sensors stop the lift should it contact anything on the stairs 
• Wide, comfortable seat swivels 90° toward landing at each level for safe and easy enter and exit 
• Safety switch prevents lift from running when seat is not in proper position 
• 300 lbs capacity: aircraft cable rated for 4,200 lbs 
• Choice of vinyl or leather upholsteries in three colors (light almond, evergreen or mocha) 
• Operates on standard household current, 115 VAC, 15 AMP minimum grounded circuit 
• Smooth starts and stops 

Advantages of stairlift

the important point of this design is that it can be used for all the people.it is one of the best inclusive design that can be used for all the people.

Cost Considerations

In addition to the cost for the lift,be sure to consider the cost for installation, maintenance and repair.Many lifts require a two-person team,up to half-a-day to install, and you pay for it! Our lifts are so simple to install, it takes less than 2 hours.The maintenance and repair costs for our lifts are also lower because we do not use expensive circuit boards that are prone to failure.

Safety

The need for secure support is paramount. It’s why our armrests are extra rigid. It’s why our eats swivel exactly as they do. It’s why our back rest is adjustable. It’s why we use aircraft cable rated up to 4,200 lbs. on a drive system that has withstood the test of time for more than 50 years.It’s why safety sensors do not allow the lift to run unless the seat is in the proper position. It’s why our footrest has safety sensors to stop the lift if they encounter any obstacles on the stairs.

Comfort and Convenience

The backrest has three different settings,and the fold-up footrest adjusts to two different heights for the utmost in custom comfort. The seat swivels 90° towards the landing at both top and bottom to address bending,balancing and twisting issues when transitioning to and from the lift.

The spacious, wide seat features thick padding and attractive upholstery.The unit-control switch requires little manual dexterity to operate and is conveniently located at the end of the armrest.

Summit Power Options

Unlike other manufacturers, Summit Lifts provides you with the choice of two convenient power options. Choose between safe, AC electrical operation (low voltage, 24V controls), or add protection against power outages by using our DC battery operated system. Unlike other units,

our DC battery operated unit continually recharges regardless of its position on the track. This eliminates the need for you to remember to park the lift on charging pins or to make sure it is in a charging zone.

EXAMPLE 2: Sock Aid

Wearing compression stockings is challenge for people who had back, knee or hip surgery or people have back pain. Even ordinary people have difficulties in wearing them since bending legs for putting socks on/off is torment. 

This sock aid will hold its shape which enables you to place your foot into your stocking and pull it up the length of your calf without the struggle and pulling.

Advantages:

• It is useful for everyone, but especially;
• People with edema or larger feet (wide cone helps them)
• People had surgery (back, hip, knee)
• People cannot bend their feets. (Fat people, people suffer from stroke, etc.)
• Design is not only good for compression stocking, but also for delicate, sensitive stockings
• Quick way to wear socks

Disadvantages:

• Sock Aid cannot be broken into pieces, thus it is hard to carry in traveling. It can be fissile.
• It provides only easy wearing not removing.
• People with no hands or blind people cannot benefit from this design easily.

EXAMPLE 3:Hands Free Umbrella Holder

The design holds an open umbrella and leave your hands free to carry out other activities.The users wear accessory to hold umbrella holder over theirdress and their both hand become free to use.

It is a good inclusive design and is usable for all people including elderly, handicap people.

*Seniors with walkers, wheelchair

*Moms with babies

*Walk your dogs

Advantages

• Hold your baby, bags, wheelchair, scooter, shooping bags at the same time
• It becomes easy to control the umbrella (especially windy weather)
• Your hand will be protected from the cold because you can now put them in your pockets
  

Improvement

It can be design at different sizes, because its default size is too big to control and too heavy to carry

Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems

WHAT IS UBIGUITOUS COMPUTING?

Ubiquitous computing, or calm technology, is a paradigm shift where technology becomes virtually invisible in our lives. Instead of having a desk-top or lap-top machine, the technology we use will be embedded in our environment.

EXAMPLE:

TELE-MONITORING AS A MEDICAL APPLICATION OF UBIGUTIOUS COMPUTING

Using this system it is wanted to evaluate the concepts of ubiquitous computing (embedding, networking, context-awareness) in patient-monitoring applications. The related information collected by these methods:

1.  Micro-technical smart sensors within wearable sensors.
2.  Mobile & Wearable Computing: Personalized mobile information systems can be developed with high usability in mind. Like mobile health-monitoring applications in your mobile.

  

   

 3. Wireless Communications (especially Bluetooth and GSM/UMTS): a monitoring device can always be connected without generating high costs 

 4. Web-based Electronic Patient Record (EPR). In order to reduce the costs of public health systems using home-monitoring technology, the collected vital data must be automatically shared with the heterogeneous information systems (for example clinical information systems).
 

By "tele-monitoring" system,

1. Patient mobility is maximized by physically embedding the devices into distributed wearable or implantable systems.
2. Intuitive, context-aware user-interfaces to enable usability for diseased and elderly people. 
3. Special security requirements to preserve privacy due to the sensibility of patient data

ADVANTAGES of Ubiquitous systems:

Seamless Communication increase mobility. Ubiquitous systems can interact with mobile users or without wired infrastructure. This generally provaides  some form of wireless communication - Bluetooth, wireless LAN, cellular, infra-red, reflecting lasers  and enables mobility.

PROBLEMS of Ubiquitous systems:

Trust, Security and Privacy Ubiquitous applications may involve collaborations between ad-hoc groups of devices, agents or infrastructure servers. It may require migration (mobile agents) or downloading of code.  Most ubiquitous systems have the capability of tracking users and determining patterns of activity - this can be very dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands.

Low Powered Devices Power sources for devices is one of the biggest problems. You cannot keep changing batteries. Use of solar cells, fuel cells, heat converters, motion converters may all be possible. The biggest challenge is to design very low powered devices, transmitters etc although in the past our emphasis has been on faster chips.

THE PROPERTIES OF UBIGUITOUS SYSTEMS:

Context Awareness A ubiquitous system cannot assist a user without being able to accurately determine what they are doing. Sensor networks may need to be aware of what they are trying to measure or detect - human activity, cars, animals etc.

Information overload Vast numbers of sensors can potentially generate petabytes of data - this needs to filtered, aggregated, reduced etc. as close to source as possible e.g. using programmable networks, collaborative sensing strategies. Sensors may have to be programmed to look for specific events.

Self Configuration New approaches are needed to provide flexible and adaptable software and hardware both for mobile devices and the intelligent environment.

Human factors arise to cater for new modes of interaction and ’invisible’ ambient technology which must be usable by non-technical people. There is a need to support transient organizations and dynamic, potentially mobile work arrangements including virtual teams, ad-hoc collaborations and virtual organizations.

Social Issues Human, social and organizational issues that arise in creating new forms of interaction based on ambient technologies and deploying those systems within everyday environments be they the home, the workplace, or more public arenas such as museums and galleries.

Business Models Ubiquitous applications often assume a support infrastructure which provides storage, processing, network connectivity and various services in the home, office, on planes, trains and even in the street. How is this paid for? What is the business model which will make sure this expensive infrastructure is available everywhere.