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Overview

"Candi" is a DIY opensource thermostat that I designed and built with 4 other students in the MIT 2.00 Introduction to Design Class during the fall semester of 2018. Each group in the class was given a user and the goal was to work with them and help them to become more independent in some aspect of their lives.

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User

Our user, Candelaria (Candi for short), is visually impaired. When we interviewed her, she told us about the struggles she had when using appliances around her home, especially with her thermostat whose numbers were too small for her to read. Because of this, we decided to design a thermostat for the visually impaired. Becuase of this, we created an idea that we wanted to share with family and friends of the visually impaired. A case for a circular thermostat that will read out loud the temperature in which it is set.

Mechanical Assembly

OUR NEW PLACE

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  • Baseboard: Isn't required but it made it easier to mount and test everything for our prototyping purposing.

  • Clear acrylic housing cylinder (the 'case') that fits over the thermostat that spins the thermostat dial.

  • Color strips: located on the side of the acrylic case so that the color sensor detects the different colors to sense the position of the dial and then determine the temperature. 

  • USB-Powered Speaker: the 3.5mm jack of the speaker is connected to the 3.5mm jack for the Emic2 (which in turn is connected to the Arduino).

Want to learn more? Check out Candi's website! We created a website to share our idea with family and friends of the visually impaired so that they can make their loved one's lives just a little bit easier.

MEET CANDI

  • Our visually impaired user.

  •  Very active (likes to dance, paint and spend time with friends)

  • Faces several obstacles throughout her daily life.
     

Final Presentation

Lessons Learned

 

  • Creative-thinking capability

  • Developed personal skills that allowed me to get into Candi's shoes in order to be able to give her the best product we could design and build in less than half of a semester.

  • How to construct models for reasoning about design alternatives (estimations, sketches, sketch models, spreadsheets, geometric models, mockups and prototypes).

  • Engineering expertise and proficiency in techniques for building product models and prototypes

  • Structured methods for working in teams on a project that requires teamwork to be successful.

  • Presentation skills

  • Understanding of, and enthusiasm for, the engineering activities involved with designing a new product.

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