During this workshop we earned about trying to adapt existing products for a new purpose and for the greater good. We investigated ideas for children with disabilities that can provide new ways of learning through sensory methods, the idea of making simple music using apps or projection methods and the idea of The Digital Doctor and medical applications of devices.
I was quite inspired by the idea of The Digital Doctor and the idea of a small device or service that can improve someone’s life or health in some way. A device which you can have around your neck which monitors things like heart rate and blood pressure, detect falls all of these things would be really good for potentially the elderly. All of this data could then be relaid to a tablet for the carers to monitor without having to supervise the user constantly.
My initial concept was for an app or service that takes advantage of Google Glass. The programme would be used by carers or new parents to identify potential hazards in the local environment such as sharp corners or trip hazards. I feel this would be very beneficial as it helps to safety proof any kind of space the maybe a child or an elderly person may inhabit. Once the hazard has been proofed or been made safe in some way it would not show up on the program.
I feel that using Google Glass would be a good way of doing this kind of service as it is an unobtrusive piece of hardware that wouldn’t take a lot of using such as scanning the room using the camera on a tablet for example. Even using the camera on a phone is viable but with Google glass you would simply use eye movements to control the program while you could be helping the person in need at the same time. Below is a video posted by the makers of Google Glass which I feel really illustrates just how well it integrates into everyday tasks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1uyQZNg2vE