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Connect the Community: Design Challenge - Winners

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Showcasing the 10 winning entries of Phase 1 in the Connect the Community: Design Challenge.

During this difficult and challenging time, isolation can affect many of us in ways we might not have previously anticipated. We typically think of people who are elderly or ill as being the most affected by isolation, however, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how anyone can become isolated by circumstances.

We asked you to think big to transform the lives of people living in isolation using IoT technologies. New and old DesignSpark members from around the world took on this challenge and gave it everything they had – all bringing their unique experiences and perspectives to the challenge.

The judging panel had a challenging time selecting the 10 winning entries - we are delighted to share with you the people behind the winning ideas and a sneak preview of their innovations.

What's next?

We are excited to work with the winners, highly commended entrants and everyone else that took part in Phase 1 to help them progress their ideas!

Many competitors took advantage of prototyping hardware available from RS Components and Nordic Semiconductor - we are excited to see the prototypes you have been working on and showcasing all of your amazing innovations on DesignSpark.

The Winning Entries

Hannah Mckeirnan - Buddy

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"The main purpose of the device is for scheduling and facilitating social interaction with neighbours/friends/family through a combination of the screen visuals, the timing features, and the voice features. Each device can be set up to be paired with a selected ‘buddy’ which can be a neighbour, friend, or family member. The user(s) can share their emotions with their ‘buddy’ prompting empathy and communication. They can also send voice messages to each other through the recording feature, setting timers/alarms for each other (permission).

Ultimately the product's use is to ease the effects of loneliness through routine, planning, social reminders, and prompting connection. Reminders for/reassurance about regular routines are provided by the clock and alarm features. Voice messaging is facilitated by the voice memo feature, where the user can record a voice memo and send it to the device’s ‘buddy’.  Used for reminders, check ins, comforting, and prompting extended interaction."

Richard - Canvas

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"Canvas hopes to make multimedia devices more accessible to users with low dexterity and aims to cater for the "staying occupied and having fun" as well as the "video calling" and "social interaction" categories. I also hope that, much like how a real canvas helps a user to appreciate their surroundings, Canvas will help its users better appreciate what is around them instead of providing just a distraction."

Penny Morton - Community Check-In

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"Throughout the pandemic I observed how willing the community is to help each other, however there lacks a simple and efficient system to check in on neighbours or the vulnerable. The Community Check-In system is a visually engaging LED rainbow that sticks to the users window and indicates how they are feeling that day. A traffic light system ensures clear communication and ease of understanding (Green = Good, Orange = Okay but needs assistance, Red = Needs urgent help). The device is reset everyday when the occupant answers, “How are you feeling today?”. 

The digital rainbow device is not intrusive, preventing vulnerable people being disturbed when not needing help, whilst empowering registered community members to offer assistance when needed. The device would be connected via cellular to an app/online platform providing safe communication links for details of medical and shopping requirements with the potential to be developed to include community activities/tasks."

Penny Morton - Connected Cups

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"While phone apps and websites can help you stay connected, ConnectedCups can help you feel connected. Real time presence means so much in any relationship. When one person uses their cup, the other person's cup lights up, encouraging the act of drinking together. ConnectedCup uses an accelerometer to measure the amount one person is drinking. To create a shared experience, the LED strip visually indicates the amount the other person has drank, so you know exactly when your friend has finished their drink!

Dehydration is a serious issue amongst the elderly and is associated with morbidities: increased falls, confusion, infections and frequent hospitalisation . A UK DRIE Study found 20% of UK  residents in long term care were dehydrated. 

ConnectedCups encourages the elderly to stay hydrated in a fun and new way. A loved one  can gently remind and check their grandparent is drinking enough via a shared experience"

Md. Khairul - IsoCare

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"Inadequate physical activity can lead to several diseases like type 2 diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. A lack of sleep affects the immune system and body lose the ability to fight against infection like covid-19 and other harmful germs. Falling can create a serious injury in the elderly population and in United States, around 33% of the elderly fall at least once per year, and these falls result in over 2 million visits to the emergency room. So monitoring all these parameters are very important especially when someone is in isolation. Moreover blood-oxygen levels and temperature can give significant clue about covid-19 infection and other asymptomatic problems. IsoCare, a wearable device can give you important information regarding all the above parameters and alert you automatically if required. You can access all the information using smartphone app or Alexa."

Maria Sofia and Natalia - Pill-ing Better

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"Pill-ing Better is an easy-to-use smart assistance/pill dispenser targeted for elders during isolation. This product was created considering two of the main problems that elders face: taking their medicines and their inexperience with technology. Pill-ing Better will give them the possibility to take advantage of nowadays technologies by helping them remember activities in their daily routines and dispensing their pills. As a smart assistant, it will make some company to the senior and it will also allow the user to stay occupied, active, healthy and entertained; while being independent and improving their own wellbeing. Pill-ing Better is not only useful during isolation, it can also help many families to take care of their loved grandparents during normal circumstances."

Ashwin Sridhar - RetroMate AI

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"The elderly and carers across the world are facing an unprecedented crisis as homes become extensions of hospitals. AI RetroMate is an all-in-one solution to help the elderly and carers with their everyday lives as a way of improving the independence of the elderly. The design aims to remotely connect carers to their patients, to help reduce the cost and strain of full-time care. The solution offers a range of features to enhance the well being and security by taking advantage of cellular IOT technology as a means to keep the patient and carer connected reliably and securely."

Isabella and Fai - Smart Popper

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"SmartPopper is an external electronic pill popper device intended to remind users to take their medication as well as assist in extracting pills out of blister packaging.  If the user does not take their medication within the assigned time window and does not respond to the reminder system, an emergency contact of choice will be alerted. This ensures that an intervention is made when it is absolutely necessary. Overall, the aim of our product is to improve medicine adherence and remove the need for continuous external monitoring so it can provide the user with a greater sense of independence while working as an assistive device."

Mahendra - Street Sentry

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"StreetSentry will be a burglar and safety alarm system for multiple homes in a street or apartment block to create a collaborative security and safety system.  It eliminates the need for individual households to subscribe to an expensive remote monitoring provider, which can cost as high as £50 per month, because the participants will respond to events as engaged neighbours as it is in their self-interest to do so. Given the immediate location of participants, the other crucial benefit will be vastly improved latency between an event and the investigation.

StreetSentry will propel home alarm systems into the 21st century and at the same time facilitate community cohesion, collaboration and social engagement. It will also address the curse of loneliness as my experience with creating a neighbourhood group using a phone based social media app has demonstrated that people innately want to belong to a community which is based on a shared purpose.

This system provides the basis for recreating the communal village experience which has been a core human trait prior to modern times when people extending beyond familial groupings looked after each other."

Henry - VitaPatch

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"Vital signs are useful. They are used to detect medical problems. They are used to monitor a patient's health. But these vital signals are neither measured continuously in a healthcare facility (except ICU) nor at home. The consequences are significant. Either sudden changes indicating rapid deterioration may not be caught in time; or subtle trends showing health changes may not be found until a terrible impact occurs.

With our society aging and COVID-19 pandemic in the background, it is crucial to have continuous monitoring for patients at homes and healthcare centers to prevent rapid deterioration and identify subtle but potential health risks. By measuring temperature, SpO2, blood pressure, pulse, and respiration rate all the time, VitaPatch is one low-cost integrated solution to address the above healthcare issues."

Look out for Connect the Community innovations on DesignSpark over the coming weeks as entrants showcase their ideas!

RS Grass Roots is the Education & Community Impact team at RS. Grass Roots champions young engineers with exciting opportunities to nurture the next generation of outstanding innovators! Industry now demands graduate engineers with not only the knowledge but crucially the skills and practical experience to solve real problems and create new designs. Whether you are an academic working to enhance the educational experience or a student tackling your latest project - RS is here to help.
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