Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Living Environment
Alexis Welch, Ahmaad Randall, Amy Harmon Ying Sun, Ph.D.
Biomedical Engineering Program, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881;
http://www.ele.uri.edu/courses/bme484/2017/00_NEBEC_all_papers.pdf
Abstract—This model house demonstrates how a standard dimensions being a 10.60in-length by 1.24in-width with a
home can be made accessible for persons with disabilities . Using slanted roof causing the height to range from 9.20in to
a 16 to 1 scale, the model demonstrates several modern 11.50in. The garage door exists 3.00in from each edge of the
technologies that provide means for independent living for
garage and it has the dimensions of 8.00in-length by
individuals with various disabilities. The overall goal is to offer
examples of options for those with disabilities to see how they can 5.00in-width. Inside the house there is a staircase with the
improve their overall quality of life in their home that may or dimensions 10.50in-length by 3.500in-width by 7.85in-height.
may not have originally been built to be handicap accessible. The layout and dimensions of the house are represented in
Figure 1.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the United States, the portion of the population
experiencing some type of disability is a growing ratio which
increases with age [1]. This is becoming a problem because
the ageing of the population will bring with it the need for
continuous and substantial increase in the supply of home
care, leading to an expected increased shortage of nurses and
other caregiving personnel [3]. Therefore, there is need to
increase the use of assistive devices (ADs) as their substitutes.
However, an important gap regarding the awareness of ADs
has been identified, despite their widespread usefulness and
commercial availability [3].
Some methods to increase awareness of ADs and
willingness to use them have been tested, revealing that the
decision-making process of choosing an AD involves more
factors than the function status alone of the individual[2]. This
Fig.1
project aims to develop a representation of ADs using a
method that falls in between the pictorial and exemplary
A. HARDWARE
methods providing a realistic example in the form of a
The prototype hardware configuration consists of a
scaled-down 3-dimensional (3D) model. The intended effect is
to give better insight as to what a home could look like after portable 5V battery for a power source, a PIC184F525
being adapted to an individual’s specific needs and microprocessor, a RN-42 Bluetooth, an H-bridge, a three-volt
preferences with various ADs. While the success of this DC motor, two snap action switches as sensors, and a pulley
method still needs to be tested, the prototype model house system designed through SolidWorks. The motor is placed on
aims to initiate its further implementation in the orientation of the bottom left corner of the back of the house in a 3D-printed
ADs to the disabled population. housing unit 35.80mm-length by 12.26mm-width by
9.96mm-height. In addition, pulley components were
II. METHODS 3D-printed using SolidWorks. These assemblies are shown in
Figure 2, with the sensor housing unit on the left, the wheel in
A. Architecture
the middle and the pin for the wheel on the right.
The model is a two-story house built on a 16:1 scale
with an open front-facing side to display the interior. The
house as a whole has the dimensions 2.50ft-length by
1.67ft-width by 1.90ft-height. The lower level features one
room with dimensions 17.30in-length by 15.40-in width by
7.90in-height while the upper level features one room with the
same length and width as the lower level room but with a
height of 7.85in. In addition, there is a garage with the Fig.2