DESIGN NAME: Soappy
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Hand Sanitizer Printer
INSPIRATION: Hand washing is a good way to keep kids from getting sick and prevent the spread of germs in day-to-day life. However, because the procedures of washing hands are dull, kids tend to ignore or forget it when not being guided by their parents or teachers before they foster this habit. Getting hand sanitizer is a must part of these procedures of handwashing and is a behavior that kids have interaction with an object-the container of hand sanitizer. We aim to create a new experience to make this interaction more playful and appealing.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Soappy is a hand sanitizer printer designed to encourage kids to wash their hands regularly in a playful way. Like playing with a toy, kids can choose sanitizer patterns they like on the screen of Soappy and get them printed on their hands. According to the level of how dirty their hands are, Soappy can provide different groups of patterns. When the hands are dirtier, the patterns in a group become more complex, which contain more hand sanitizer.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: Firstly, the child awakens Soappy by touching the screen and then places his or her hands on either side of Soappy. The sensor detects how dirty the hands are and generates a corresponding group of patterns. (The dirtier the hands, the more complex the patterns.) The child selects the pattern he or she likes and puts his or her hand under the printing area in the middle and waits for the hand sanitizer pattern to be printed. Finally, when the hands have been washed thoroughly, the sensor can check if the hands are clean.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: Changsha, China
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: 3D printing, bacteria detection technology, image recognition
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: 130mm x 110mm x 220mm
TAGS: hand washing, kids, play, interaction, education, hand sanitizer, basin, patterns, printing, product design
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: According to the research on kids and parents, children in many households don't like to wash hands, and it is a challenge for parents to lead their children to wash hands properly and help them foster a good habit of washing hands regularly. The bathrooms' environment in many homes is not attractive to kids in terms of colors and materials. Besides, the products designed for the procedures of washing hands in the market usually do not allow users to have playful engagements. The functionality of Soappy is realizable with the help of existing 3D printing technology, bacteria detection technology, and image recognition. From experiments on the patterns of different complexity on children's hands, the scale of the pattern was determined. By measuring the children's ergonomics and user testing, we arrived at a reasonable and comfortable interaction and product dimensions.
CHALLENGE: How to integrate all the complex printing and detecting components into a relatively small product dimension is a challenge.
ADDED DATE: 2020-09-25 19:52:27
TEAM MEMBERS (2) : Kai Li and Ran Zhang
IMAGE CREDITS: Kai Li and Ran Zhang, 2020.
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