What it does
There are many safety challenges for Deaf bicyclists. This design uses the "Sound to Motion" sensory substitution to translate road information into dynamic language, making riding safer and more comfortable.
Your inspiration
In caring for our hearing impaired friends, I have found that many of them are under a lot of psychological stress due to the loss of their hearing, and they choose to stay at home rather than go out. However, it is great for the mind, body and soul to go outside and see the richness of the world, so I decided to try to break this dilemma and make hearing impaired friends more willing to go out and see the outside world. The design was inspired by the neurologist David Eagleman, who in his research succeeded in "hearing" sound information through vibrations in a person born deaf, demonstrating the infinite potential of the human brain.
How it works
The goal is to enable hearing-impaired bicyclists to access important sound information on the road, as the general public can grasp and even predict road conditions. The important sound information includes 1. direction of incoming traffic 2. number of incoming vehicles 3. speed of incoming vehicles 4. distance of incoming vehicles 5. type of incoming vehicles, and finally the design converts the characteristics of three types of sound into three types of vibrating outputs to achieve the transmission of important sound information. These inputs and outputs are : 1.The frequency of the sound is converted into the arrangement of the vibration motor. 2. The intensity of the sound converted to the intensity of the vibration 3. The number of sounds converted to the interval of vibrations. By using these three simple transmission information, all the sound information on the road can be transmitted to the hearing impaired bicyclist.
Design process
【Empathy Period】 At the beginning, I first immersed myself in the community and life of hearing impaired friends, observing the details of life, the overall appearance, and understanding the challenges encountered in life. By chance, I found that there was a bicycle team formed by hearing impaired friends, and they were trying to help lead young hearing impaired friends to go out and see beautiful scenery through bicycles, which touched me so much that I decided to try to solve the problems of bicycling through design. 【Proposal Period】 In order to let hearing impaired friends have a perfect cycling experience, I found out several inconveniences in cycling, the most important one is the lack of road information, so I proposed several ways, and finally I adopted the research of neuroscientists to try to use technology to compensate for the lost sound information to improve the cycling experience of hearing impaired friends. 【Execution period】 Execute the development of modeling human factors, the design of buckle harness structure, and gradually perfect the final helmet design in several draft models.
How it is different
This design combines neurological research with an unconventional "sound-to-vibration" method to allow hearing-impaired riders to receive sound information to enhance road safety. There is no product on the market that transmits complete sound information to hearing impaired riders through vibration. In addition, there is no special open fastener structure on the market that allows the user to remove the helmet without hooking off the hearing aid behind the ear.
Future plans
Enter into the engineering aspects of the validation and implementation : 1. Test and improve vibration technology to verify the clarity and accuracy of information transmission. 2.Verify whether the rider can ride without missing the sound message. 3. Test the strength of the special buckle structure to make sure it is safe and meets road safety regulations.
Awards
2022 YOUNG PIN BEST DESIGN 2022 VISION GET WILD Graphic Design - Product Design Category Nominated
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