Monday, September 23, 2013

INDN 212: Thoughts On Safety

So, our next project is all about safety. We have to analyze a range of situations and products and think about what we could do to make them safer. Alternatively, we can develop a new product, that serves as a preventative measure for danger, or one that serves as a warning system for danger, or if we really want to push it, we can develop an innovative radical new suggestions.

I'm inclined to look at the last option, as I'm having big difficulties with coming up with some ideas. That's the main reason for me doing this blog post, so that I get get some of my thoughts out onto the page and possibly come up with some ideas. That would be nice.

So, the first port of call is to choose some situations that I can see a new product based around safety or solving a dangerous situation. Initial thoughts and feelings were difficult to come up with. But I started looking at some of the suggested resources and thinking of ways in which I would feel safer doing specific tasks and the like. Safety in this project isn't just safety, it can also be interpreted as "improving quality of life" or making a product easier to use.

To get some in-home research done, I talked to both my family, as well as a few different family friends who have families, some of them with young children. Some of the most consistently brought up themes for safety were:
Kitchen Safety (Knives, Machines, Heat)
Electrical Safety (Sockets, Exposed Wiring)
Household Safety (Ladders, Ergonomic [Furniture])
Sports Safety (High-Speed Safety, Impact Safeguarding)

The ideas that have stuck with me through all the others appearing are:

Dynamic Knife Sheath
Knives are a source of a lot of kitchen-based injuries. One of the ideas that I've had so far involves kitchen knives having a sort of dynamic sheath to protect adults and children against unnecessary injury. Perhaps the sheath would be one that just sits on the blade and is taken off prior to use, or maybe it could be a dynamic, shifting sheath that encases the blade, and if the blade is used for cutting, the sheath shifts back with the movement of the knife, and once the cut is completed, the sheath pulls back down over the blade, protecting the user primarily against small accidental cuts.

Indicative Heat Strip
One of the things that's always struck me is that stoves have a heat indicator more than often (except gas heaters), but yet the pots never seem to have a heat indicator. I've burnt myself on the body of a pot more than once, and twice it's been because I didn't know it was hot. The idea that I have in mind is of a heat-sensitive strip that that can tell the user when the pot itself is hot enough to be dangerous. It wouldn't even have to be a progressive scale. The strip could just indicate if it is hot or not.

Socket Covers
Apparently these do actually exist, but they aren't always very good at what they do. Medicine jars are sealed against children opening them, perhaps socket covers could function in a similar way. With a twist-lock system in place, it would make it that much more difficult for a child to gain access to an electrical socket.

Ergonomic Encouragements
One of the things that came up often as well was a suggestion to improve one's posture, improving the quality of life as well as improving the health of the individual. The potential in this could be in a form of back support that is strapped around the chest, or potentially actually connected to the chair, allowing the user to feel the correct form with their spine and take up a good position.

Dynamic Impact Protection
One of the things that keep coming up are Non-Newtonian Fluids. And increasingly, I'm getting the vibe that they'd be perfect for a body armour of sorts. However, I think that that idea is definitely already out there, and I'm just setting myself up for some very difficult situations by trying to compete with global brands to come up with something that might beat their projects.

Ladder Base
One of the problems that I face when I'm using a ladder around the house at home is that around our house, we have a lot of grass and soft earth. This makes it very difficult to actually get a stable ladder and can pose a large number of risks. One of the ideas that I have involves making a portable support for such situations, a support that could be placed on the ground, and, being large and flat, spreads the weight around over a larger surface, ensuring the ladder is stable. I think there is potential in this idea, because the device could even be something that can be mounted to a ladder for transport and fold up, as well as potentially having ladder leg supports, to ensure safe ladder usage.

I think what I'll do next is sketch up my favourite two or three ideas, and themselves we where I can't wake it from there.

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