Designing A Motion Sensor Art Studio
A design project for an independent art setup
By Paintability
Introduction
MedLaunch is an organization on campus that works at the intersection of design, science and technology to solve healthcare problems. Our group is Paintability, and five of us met almost every Wednesday and Sunday this year to brainstorm, prototype, test, and iterate on a design challenge. With multiple project shifts, various sketches, prototypes failing, and late nights white boarding, we are passionate about our final design and excited to share more about the process that led us to it!
Meet our Community Partner
James Murtha from Saline, Michigan suffered a mountain biking accident in 2014 and became a C4 quadriplegic. He is unable to achieve any mobility below the waist and has limited mobility below the neck, thus it is challenging to pursue many of his hobbies including painting. Although he’s a skilled painter, he is unable to set up his paint without assistance from another person.
Need
And that’s where we come in. James wants a way that he can paint and set up his art studio independently, allowing him to creatively express himself when he so chooses. Therefore, our problem statement is: Quadriplegics and others with limited mobility of their arms need a solution that will enable them to set up their paint supplies independently.
Market Research
We first spoke with James to learn more about his condition and exact needs. We asked him to walk us through how he would normally set up his studio and paint. As a result, we learned that he actually doesn’t have a problem painting, but rather wants a way to set up his paints without additional help. Additionally, we conducted competitive research, yet found that there was no existing art studio tool in the market that would enable quadriplegics to paint independently. Our main insights and observations from this interview were:
- James needs the paints to be accessible.
- It would be ideal if the art station was compact and easily transferable to save space in his apartment.
- Setting up the paint is his biggest pain point.
Design Requirements
Ideation & Initial Sketches
Figure 1. Sketches for Design 1
Design 1
Figure 2.Extendable arm diagram
Our first design to help James dispense paint at his convenience was based on motion-detecting soap dispensers. We bought a couple of these dispensers off of Amazon to be able to test with and break down. Using these we discovered that the paint was able to remain in the pumps and not dry out. So, our first design was based on a carousel of these types of pumps which could spin for James to choose whichever color he needed, and then an attached palette which James could use to push underneath the paint dispenser and gather the colors he wanted.
Figure 3 and 4. Rotatable paint dispenser fixture and palette diagram
Paintability Team prototyping a rotatable paint carousel
Figure 5. Automatic paint dispenser diagram
We presented this idea at our first design review and gathered some critiques — especially concerning the motion sensors. Our reviewers rightly pointed out that motion sensors can be unreliable (something we had been noticing) and that could be problematic for James and easily cause a mess. We also began to notice that the paint often came out inconsistently and thought this was due to the weight of the paint that had to be pumped out of the dispenser. So, we took this feedback and problems we faced and got to work on a second iteration.
Figure 6. Sketches for Paint dispenser in Design 2
Design 2
Our second design still used a carousel, but instead of motion sensors we planned to use buttons on top of our dispensers. Also, we flipped the dispenser on its head. Instead of paint being pumped from the bottom to the top as in a soap dispenser, we decided that we could pump the paint out of the bottom of the bottle by increasing the air pressure in the top and adding a tube at the bottom for the paint to come out. This design used a mini air pump to push air in the top, which would increase the air pressure in our bottle and force paint out of the tube at the bottom. This design worked to push paint out, but a problem we came across was that the tube at the bottom leaked a small amount of paint. This would easily cause a mess for James and was the next problem we needed to solve.
Solenoid valve and air pump prototype
Sketches for Design 3
Design 3
In our most recent iteration, we used the dispenser design from the previous iteration, but improved it to prevent leaks. We added a solenoid valve which would be opened only when the mini air pump was running, in order to push the paint out when the pump was engaged, and close when the air pump stopped running so that more paint would not leak out.
We also met with James while developing this design to talk to him about his set up and see if he had any input he wanted to give on what we were thinking. In our meeting with him at his parents’ home, we decided on proper heights for the stand and its portability. We also confirmed with him how the buttons and palette should be in our design. A major change we made because of our meeting with him was that we decided to remove the carousel and rotating feature and make this a static design of 6 dispensers in a 3x2 grid pattern. The carousel, we concluded, would have taken up more space than was necessary and was more complicated than useful.
This brings us to today, where we are working on building the dispensers and stand (though we are impeded to a large extent by coronavirus). Our plan, as seen in *the picture below* is to have a collection of 6 dispensers in a portable box which can be plugged into a wall outlet to provide the electricity to power the pumps and solenoid valves. Each dispenser will have a button on top of it so that James can hit the button of whichever color he wants and the paint will dispense as long as he holds the button down. The paint will dispense into a disposable aluminum palette (which James already uses to aid in clean-up) and be able to be pulled out from a drawer underneath the dispensers so that James can bring the paint to his canvas.
Takeaways
One of the major takeaways from our experiences this year is the necessity for flexibility in the design process. Our design process requires a lot of flexibility in thinking and attitude both when we were designing the project and when we experienced the setbacks brought on by Covid-19. Furthermore, our team consisted of members of all different backgrounds and technical skill levels, so it was important that we embraced these differences so that each person was able to bring his or her experiences to the table and improve our design overall.
Future Plans
With the spread of Covid-19, our work on our physical model has slowed because we cannot meet as a group to work on the project. We also no longer have access to 3D printers and the large power tools we would have needed for fabrication of our design because the school buildings are locked. We feel confident in our project design and intend to complete the physical model in the fall. Since most of our planning is already done, we think this should be ready quite soon in the fall. For now, we have a detailed outline of our project with pictures and calculations included here and in our blog.
Our Sponsors
