Assignment 7 (Minor-2)
Designing and building a product to minimize surface contact with high touch public surfaces.
For more information about the product, visit www.decovify.in
1. Background
As Covid-19 has spread, so has our fear of surfaces. There are now some familiar scenes in public places around the world – people trying to open doors with their elbows, commuters studiously surfing their way through train journeys to avoid grabbing a handle, office workers rubbing down their desks each morning. Cleaning regimes in offices, hospitals, shops and restaurants have increased. As we step out of our homes, we encounter numerous surfaces, and the situation is such that we have to give serious thought before performing a simple activity like opening a door. Some studies on other coronaviruses, including SARS and MERS, found they can survive on metal, glass and plastic for as long as nine days unless they are adequately disinfected. Some can even hang around for up to 28 days in low temperatures. ATM surfaces, Biometrics pad, grocery packets, door handles, door knobs, door latch, lift buttons, train handles, bus handles, metro handles, taxi door handle, window opening handle in cars, taps, faucets are some of the high touch surfaces that we encounter daily which pose a threat to us. Also, the lack of preventive measures that we can adopt to reduce the risk of getting infected from a contaminated surface is a serious concern. Thus there is a need to introduce a new set of personal preventive gear which acts as a barrier against external surfaces, which is ergonomic, affordable and easy to use and that is where CovRing fits in.
2. Proof of concept and prototyping
After having realised the problem and its implications we started our research into the existing solutions. Besides a few open source designs that too with limited functionalities we were unable to find a product of any commercial significance. Thus our target was to design and manufacture a product that can minimise our contact with foreign as much as possible and to also come up with a process to sanitize the product as well. We did 7 cycles of prototyping with 3D printing and iterations over a span of 3 months from April-June with each iteration better than the previous one in terms of comfort, convenience and functionality. Modifications were made according to the feedback we generated after testing it in all the possible use case scenarios. As of now we have finished with our prototyping phase and we have finalised our design.
3. Product features
The final design consists of two components: the wearable device and the protective case. The feautures of the product are-
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1. The rubber part on top provides the necessary friction while rotating the concerned spherical object and thus providing the necessary torque required to rotate objects like door knobs and car window handles.
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2. The two hooks with small extrusions on each of them help the user to easily push buttons on ATM pad and Biometrics pad, lift grocery packets, open door handles, operating a door latch, push lift buttons, hold train handles, bus handles, metro handles and open taxi door handles.
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3. The single finger design ensures freedom of movement of each finger thus ensuring comfort for the user.
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4. The wearable device has a flat base so as to distribute any weight/force the wearable device may carry/experience among the index finger, the middle finger and the ring finger rather than just the middle finger.
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5. The flat base also acts as a lid for the protective case. When the wearable device is fully immersed in the protective case, the flat base aligns itself with the open top of the protective case thus enclosing the wearable device in the protective case.
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6. The protective case has a foam base at the bottom. The user has to pour liquid alcohol based sanitizer on the foam base twice a day to ensure that when the top of the wearable device comes in contact with the foam base, it is sanitized. Thus the case increases convenience as it makes storage, portability and sanitization of the device safe and hassle free.
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7. The protective case also has a clamp on its exterior so that it can easily be attached to the pant pocket of the user thus ensuring convenience in its usage.
4. Product use cases - The product use cases are pushing a lift button, opening a door handle, opening a door knob, opening a car door, lifting an object and attaching the case to the belt buckle.
5. Current status
As of now the we have started the manufacturing of the product. The product will be made via injection molding and we have had the mold of the product made. Also we have applied for the patent of the product and it has been published on the patent website (Application number-202011028481, Journal number - 33/2020, Applicant name- Bhaanu Ashok)