You should already have a product or service picked out for your final. Please do some in-depth research on the science behind that product or service and report your findings below. Please include three urls you used for you research. Note: this information will be useful when you write your final paper.
The invention I will be investigating and developing is actually going to be the combination of existing technologies into a service. This service will be the provision of “rooms of silence” on college campuses. These rooms also referred to as anechoic chambers, feature strategically padded walls that absorb low and high frequency sound waves. Many people complain that these rooms are too quiet. My rooms will combine this noise buffering room with white noise and variations of white noise (which I have researched previously, and use variations of myself). Because white noise contains specific frequencies in the human audible range, I would allow participants to modify these frequencies to their preferred “sound” (i.e. brown, pink, blue, etc.) The purpose of these rooms would be to offer an environment free of outside distractions, for college students to unwind, or study.
Unlike light, sound can travel through most everything in homes and buildings. Typically homes are somewhat soundproofed through the construction of the walls, and through aesthetic choices such as flooring selection and drapes. Construction wise, there is typically a gap between the outside walls and the inner walls, which may be filled with some sort of insolation as well. As sound waves pass through the first wall they come into contact with particles in the air (or insulation). These particles absorb some of the energy from the sound waves and convert it into heat energy instead. The same principle applies to the flooring and curtains inside the home, these materials absorb some of the energy from sound waves produced in the home, and dampen these sounds. In short, there are 3 ways to block sound, using extra space, adding objects to absorb sound, and dampening using specific materials like insulation.
There are other ways to construct buildings and rooms in a way that lead to soundproofing. Using materials that are not hollow lead to further sound wave absorption. Using walls and doors separated by gaps also leaves room for sound to be absorbed into the air space, and loose some of its energy. An unconventional method of soundproofing includes building a virtually floating room inside another room where sound is absorbed in the surrounding air (or insulated) pocket before reaching the inner room. The measurement of how well noises can pass through different materials is called the Noise Reduction Coefficient. This is the percentage of sound a material can absorb.
Sound colors are similar to the timbre of music. White noise includes an equal distribution of all the frequencies that are audible to humans (measured in Hz). Brown noise features more density in the lower frequency sounds and less as the frequencies increase. It decreases by 6dB for every octave. Blue noise features an increase of 3dB as the frequency increases, but unlike brown, its distribution is not as severe at one end or the other. Violet noise is close to being the opposite of brown noise with the majority of concentration of frequencies being on the higher spectrum. Grey splits these other colors in two and features a higher distribution of lower and higher frequencies, with a lower concentration of middle ground frequencies.
http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/remodeling/soundproof-home2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colors_of_noise#Brown.28ian.29_noise
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/soundproofing.html
The invention I will be investigating and developing is about fixing color blindness. I’m looking to invent some sort of contact lenses to help distinguish colors for those who experience color blindness. Color blindness is a genetic condition caused by a difference in how one of more of the light-sensitive cells found in the retina of the eye respond to certain colors. These cells, called cones, sense wavelengths of light, and enable the retina to distinguish between colors.
The difference in sensitivity to one or more cones can make a person color blind. Color blindness affects a significant percentage of the population. There is no actual blindness but there is a deficiency of color vision. The most usual cause is a fault in the development of one or more sets of retinal cones that perceive color in light and transmit that information to the optic nerve. This type of color blindness is usually a sex-linked condition. The genes that produce photopigments are carried on the X chromosome. If some of these genes are missing or damaged, color blindness will be expressed in males with a higher probability than in females because males only have one X chromosome. So my product would probably be more popular for males.
The symptoms of color blindness are difficulty distinguishing between colors, inability to see shades or tones of the same color, or rapid eye movement. Color blindness can also be produced by physical or chemical damage to the eye, the optic nerve, or parts of the brain. For example, people with achromatopsia suffer from a completely different disorder, but are nevertheless unable to see colors. Right now there isn’t any treatment for color blindness but most color-blind people are normal in other respects and can generally navigate without it. I want these people to be able to experience all of the colors that I can. I want them to have that experience and be able to appreciate all of the colors they’re not able to see now.
Right now like I stated there aren’t any certain treatments for inherited color blindness. There has been testing recently involving injecting genetic material into the eye on monkeys that has been proved to work. It hasn’t been tested on humans yet because they’re still looking to do more testing before doing so. I wonder if this strategy is too dangerous to operate on humans. Which is why I’m looking to invent contact lenses so people don’t have to go through this process.
Doing research on this I believe that I could invent filters to change the wavelength of each color that goes into the eyes with the lenses. The filters would be designed uniquely for each individual since each individual differs. There would be an evaluation and exam before the lenses were made to assess this. Since people have three photopigments in the eye, which are referred to as cones, that are sensitive to blue, green, and red, my invention would individually address these different cones. A lot of color blind people have a problem with the red-green cones overlapping, so instead of yellow, an individual doesn’t see any color. So in these cases, my lenses would absorb those lights, pushing the cones away from each other and reestablishing the normal distribution of photons on them.
URL: http://www.colourblindawareness.org/colour-blindness/treatment/
URL: http://www.bausch.com/your-eye-concerns/diseases-and-disorders/color-blindness#.VThq0yG4TIU
URL: http://www.colormax.org/color-correction-system.htm
I would like to invent an app to assist one in being able to use a cell phone to amplify the sounds around them by plugging in headphones along with amplifying the sounds around them I would also like to add the ability to have captions ran through the app so that one is then able to not only have captions on a television but they are also able to use this app within their daily life to be able to better understand the world around them (ex. Phone calls, Conversations in a busy area, concerts). This way that these individuals who suffer from a hearing loss may be able to enjoy their life, especially those who may not be able to exactly afford a hearing treatment such as a hearing aid as most often these are not covered under insurance.
Amplifier is an electromagnetic or electronic component that boosts an electric current. If a person is using a hearing aid, it uses a microphone to pick up sounds from the world around you and convert them into a signal that constantly changes in strength. A transistor-based amplifier takes the signal and boosts it many times before feeding it into a tiny loudspeaker placed inside your ear canal so you hear a much magnified version of the original sounds. An amplifier’s job is to turn a small electric current into a larger one and there are many different ways to achieve this depending on exactly what you’re trying to do. If one would want to boost a reasonably constant electric voltage you can use an electromagnetic device called a transformer. A transistor is a three wire connection called a base, an emitter, and a collector. When a small input current between the base and the emitter you get a much larger output current flowing between the emitter and the collector. So by something like a hearing aid or an app you feed the output from the microphone to the base and use the output from the collector to drive the loudspeaker.
Closed captioning and subtitling are both processes of displaying text, on a device such as a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information. Closed captioning was first demonstrated at the first national conference on television for the hearing impaired in Nashville, Tennessee in 1971. A second demonstration of closed captioning was held at Gallaudet college on February 15, 1972. From these two historical uses of closed captioning we can now see that it has been used for nearly 44 years and has been used in translation of the English language for those who is hearing impaired and may not be able to fully understanding a verbal conversation.
For more than 21 million Americans, hearing loss presents many everyday challenges-some large, some small and with communication being the biggest challenge of them all. Sometimes there are small disruptions of daily life that result from reduced hearing. There are many questions that most people have no need to imagine these disruptions but they make a difference for the person with a hearing loss. There are many devices and systems are available to help deaf and hard of hearing people improve communication, adapt to their environment, and function in society more effectively. There are many devices that are being used like telephone aids such as telecommunication devices for deaf people which is rather than in voice two callers with compatible TTY’s can communicate over regular phone lines. The TTY’s have typewriter keyboards and are then able to use a typed conversation appears either in a readout panel or on paper. Throughout the development of technology many people in our society are off using a cell phone. As cell phones have many different apps available there are still different apps that can be used for those who are hearing impaired. But with most phones now a days you still do not have the capabilities to be able to run more than one app at a time.
Within the development of this app it will give those with a hearing disability the ability to use a amplifier app and the use of closed captioning. Within the app those who suffer from a hearing loss if these people are able to use a app that allows them to better hear and communicate with those around them then we would be able help them in communication with those around them in the work field or in their daily life.
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/amplifiers.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_captioning
https://www.gallaudet.edu/clerc_center/information_and_resources/info_to_go/hearing_and_communication_technology/alerting_devices/alerting_and_comm_dev_for_deaf_and_hoh_ppl.html
This blog post is a compilation of information that will come of use in my final invention project. While the connections between this information and my final product may not seem clear, they will become apparent in the final blog post. This post simply serves as a database for useful knowledge.
Topic 1: Sound
According to a study from 2012, some of the most annoying sounds to the human ear occur at a frequency between 2,000 and 5,000 hz. According to the research, sounds at these frequencies are processed in part by the amygdala. Since the amygdala is associated with emotional response, the sound’s negative qualities are exaggerated. Another reason that these frequencies are particularly awful to hear is due to the make up of the human ear. The way our ears are shaped serve a main purpose of amplifying sound. This is a function our ears are well suited to, however some frequencies are amplified to the point of physical pain. These frequencies tend to fall between the range mentioned above. These are most likely the scientific reasons that some sounds rank as more annoying or unpleasant than others.
Topic 2: Smell
Smell is often a sense highly associated with emotional memory and response. The olfactory bulb, the organ responsible for processing smell, receives input from olfactory receptor cells on the olfactory epithelium. The olfactory bulb is a part of the limbic system. The limbic system is also known as the emotional brain, taking part in the regulation of emotion (amygdala) and memory/learning (hippocampus). It is because of this that smell is linked so heavily with memories and emotions. This links also means that nailing down a specific smell that is unpleasant to all is nearly impossible. For example, a person may have a positive emotion associated with something many consider repulsive. If a young child first comes across the scent of pungent body odor with their well-loved grandfather, B.O. may be considered pleasant to them. This is due to the positive link between Grandpa and the smell of bacterial sweat. However, we can use the knowledge of an emotional memory link to scent in order to narrow down a few scents that tend to come with negative associations. These scents can include rotting bodies, feces, mold, and so on. While it is possible for someone to find one of these scents pleasing, rotating them, or setting a customizable setting will increase the likelihood of finding someone’s own personal smell hell.
Topic 3: Sight
Light waves are what give us the ability to see. Our eyes take in the light through our pupils. Our pupils can constrict or dilate in order to allow in the proper amount of light waves. The image we see from the light waves is translated onto the retina and then sent to the brain through the optic nerve. Basically, as the light becomes brighter and brighter, our pupils will constrict more and more. When light is very bright, this causes the muscles in the eye to work hard to prevent intense light from damaging the retina. This then causes muscle strain, and possibly migraines and headaches. A particularly intense type of light is fluorescent light. If one would like to cause an individual a great deal of discomfort, fluorescent lights are a sure fire method of doing so. They are incredibly bright, causing eyestrain and tiredness in the form discussed above. Additionally, fluorescent light also flickers. The flickering is caused by a ballast system engineered to limit the brightness. If electricity continues to flow through the bulb, the light will only grow in intensity. So, a ballast system is put in place, which stops the flow of electricity periodically to keep the light at a constant brightness. However, this system begins with a sort of trial and error process to attain the proper amount of powering electricity. This is what causes the flicker. While this flicker is supposed to stop when the bulb attains proper flow, some can still be subconsciously aware of the flicker. This is what causes a lot of the discomfort of directly viewing a fluorescent light. The flicker of fluorescent light is also shown to cause eye strain, headaches, migraines, and in some cases stress or anxiety.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world-75317235/?no-ist
http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/perception/smell.htm
http://ergonomics.about.com/od/lighting/a/How-Fluorescent-Lights-Affect-You-And-Your-Health.htm
http://www.livestrong.com/article/156310-eye-strain-due-to-fluorescent-lights/
I have decided to investigate the idea of inventing a device that helps individuals with the disorder of prosopagnosia. Prosopagnosia is a condition that deals with one’s visual system and their lack of ability to recognize a person by their face. What I want to do is come up with a device that will help this individual recognize the faces of other people. This is the beginning of my research and I realize I have much more to do but this is where I started and I am feeling good about it!
Many people know prosopagnosia as face blindness and it refers to a deficit in recognizing a familiar face. Some people only have a mild case of prosopagnosia which only affects the ability to recognize a person by their face but there are others who have deficits that go beyond the face. Some of these things go beyond the recognition of faces as far as other stimuli such as objects and animals. Another form of this is when people have trouble recognizing the general age of other people and even gender. Certain emotional expressions are more difficult to read and many prosopagnosics have trouble with navigation. Many prosopagnosics cope well with this disorder by developing compensatory mechanisms to help them function efficiently in everyday life. Unfortunately it is not as easy for other people with this disorder which is why I want to invent something that will be beneficial for them.
People who have this disorder fail to recognize their children and their spouse and many other people they see on a daily basis. What prosopagnosics do to help them with recognizing people is to get familiar with their hairstyle or clothing or knowing the situation in which they will encounter them. However, if they run into this person who they usually run into somewhere else, there is potential that they will fail to recognize that person. I hope to invent a device that will pinpoint a feature on an individual’s face that will in turn help the person with prosopagnosia identify the correct individual. These devices would have to be made specifically to each individual because each case varies on severity.
Along with the help of other clues, I want this device to assist an individual in living an everyday normal lifestyle. When it gets to the point where one can no longer identify their spouse or children, it becomes a serious matter. Having this device pinpoint each feature on an individual’s face and sends a signal to the brain of the individual with prosopagnosia, it is one step closer to living a better, healthier life. Like I said, I am just starting to come up with ideas for this project and this is just the very beginning.
http://prosopagnosiaresearch.org/index/information
https://www.faceblind.org/research/
http://www.medicinenet.com/face_blindness_prosopagnosia/article.htm
A mobile app is a small program that resides on a smartphone, iPad or Android tablet and fulfills a sales, marketing or training objective by delivering a useful tool to your target market. With the power of today’s phones, apps can do some really great things – from letting you know what’s going on in your area, to calculating exchange rates, movie times, social media interactions, alerting you to traffic information, providing entertainment and letting you know about special offers. There are over 1 million mobile applications out there today performing a huge range of tasks. I currently own a business so I plan to create an app for my customers, so they can receive coupons, alerts to specific things, like new items in stock, price changes, deals, and so on. I can say it is easily better than any app that does that same because there is no other app that works specifically with my store.
A few benefits of an app are:
-Immerses the user in your brand
-Creates deeper engagement
-Drives more loyalty
-Delivers important feedback to your company
-Creates new revenue stream and ultimately more profits
-Enables easy sharing of your content between mobile users
-Reduces costs to your business through automation
-Attracts new customers
-Improves customer service
Advantages over a regular website
-Specifically built for mobile devices, so they tend to be -small and quick to download and update
-Reside on the device (smartphone or tablet) so you don’t need to rely on an internet connection
-Limited purpose – keeps development time and cost manageable
-Helpful mobile tool that your audience continually uses and depends on
-Keeps your brand in in front of your customer who is on-the-go
The goal of the app:
-Provide value
-Are addictive by becoming a tool that people rely on
-Are convenient and easy to use
-Are cross-platform across the most common mobile devices
The links below are a how to, the coding I used, and program.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/231145
http://beta.appinventor.mit.edu/
http://www.codecademy.com/stories/building-an-app-start-here
The invention I have been thinking about is for partially or completely deaf people. It is a pair of glasses that will allow people to locate the source of sounds and translate speech into text. This will help to alleviate some of the worst parts of having a hearing disability and hopefully make it a much more tolerable disability to live with as a whole.
Sound localization refers to a listener's ability to identify the location or origin of a detected sound in direction and distance. It may also refer to the methods in acoustical engineering to simulate the placement of an auditory cue in a virtual 3D space. The auditory system uses several cues for sound source localization, including time- and level-differences between both ears, spectral information, timing analysis, correlation analysis, and pattern matching. These cues are also used by other animals, but there may be differences in usage, and there are also localization cues which are absent in the human auditory system, such as the effects of ear movements. Animals with the ability to localize sound have a clear evolutionary advantage. This is the basis behind one of the features of my proposed idea. Unlike the human ear, the microphones attached to the glasses that would help pinpoint the location of the sound would be able to swivel, allowing for much more accurate sound localization. Along with this, the microphones would utilize interaural time and level differences just like normal human ears. In the case of interaural time differences, the microphones would be able to pick up and analyze the minute time difference between detection on one side of the head and the other (the microphones would be placed on either side of the head or body to make this possible). Similar to this in the case of interaural level differences, the microphones would be able to detect the minute difference in the sound levels between the two. The microphones and software would have to be incredibly sensitive for these two sensory inputs, especially the level differences, as the drop off in intensity and timing between the two microphones at the speed of sound are incredibly quick. The processor for the product would have to work at peak performance for what is capable of today's computers, especially for the small size it would have to be for it to be considered convenient enough for every day use and carry.
The microphones could also both utilize monaural cues for sound localization. While these methods are not nearly as reliable as using both for sound localization, it will still help when the two types are combined. Humans can perform the task of monaural localization because the sound measured in the inner ear changes as a function of the source’s direction. Specifically, reflections from the ear pinna (the outer ear part of ear, also called the auricle) and the head changes the perceived sound in a way that is dependent on its source’s direction. This allows humans and
other organisms to perform monaural localization (including estimating the elevation of a sound source). Monaural localization, however, is a challenging problem for artificial systems, because it requires prior knowledge of the possible sounds. Indeed, the ability of humans to estimate the direction of a sound monaurally is contingent on their familiarity with it. Specifically, even though sounds are modified by the ear depending on its incident angle, we note that in a narrow mathematical sense, it is actually impossible to determine a sound’s direction from a monaural recording alone, because it is impossible to know whether a sound appears different because it is coming from a certain direction (and thus modified in a certain way by the pinna), or if it was originally like that. However, typical sounds found in our environments (and in natural environments) are not random—they have certain structure. Thus, it is by using our prior knowledge (perhaps gained through our years of experience with sound) about what sounds are likely that we can estimate its most likely direction. Psychological studies have also found that monaural localization is somewhat poor in infants as compared to adults; one of many possible explanations for this could be that they have not yet had sufficient exposure to natural sounds to have built a good prior for what typical sounds are like.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_localization
http://knowingneurons.com/2013/03/15/how-does-the-brain-locate-sound-sources/
http://ai.stanford.edu/~ang/papers/icra09-MonauralLocalization.pdf
The Invention I investigated was the science behind the most comfortable reading chair. First I decided to try to find the best fabric to use for the chair. I have decided to base my decision on three factors for the moment: texture, breathability, and how easy it is to clean. The texture of the chair is important because if it is too rough on skin in the according to the tactile system. Source 3 talks about this. Breathability is the thermal comfort of the fabric, which means that the ideal fabric would keep the skin of the person sitting in the chair at a high of 42 digress delicious. Source one and two covers this. I haven’t found a study discussing the ease of cleaning certain types of fabric yet, but I am looking for one.
I am also looking for a study done on which material the cushions and pillows should be. I am leaning toward memory foam. I haven’t found any information on which type is best, but I think that I like the idea of the type that can be personalized for each user.
I also tried to try to find studies on the most comfortable chairs, but I haven’t found a set threshold to use, but I am looking for one. So I looked up some ideas on chairs that might be productive to studying. Source four has an example of the chair I think might work best as it has a table and cup holder. This chair looks like it might easy to adapt by adding a light source, some sort of speaker sound system that could improve attention or just more fun.
Sources
1. http://www.textiletoday.com.bd/oldsite/magazine/662.
2. https://shareok.org/bitstream/handle/11244/13974/Thesis-1990-M834i.pdf?sequence=1
3. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1504074
4. http://www.louisvillerosesociety.org/various-types-of-round-swivel-chair.html/oversized-round-swivel-chair-with-cup-holder
5. http://w3izj5.assets-02.cdndrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/comfortable-chairs-for-living-room.jpg
I have decided to invent a form of a contact lens that will be able to record what you see. I was having trouble thinking of things that I could invent, and I figured most of the class would choose one of the interesting topics we covered. When learning about the different senses and how they work I found the visual system to be the most interesting to me. I was thinking about how in college when students are always going out and drinking and sometimes can't recall how exactly things happened the night before their contact lens will have recorded it all and they can take them out and place them onto a machine that will replay the vision like a hologram. Not only would this be helpful in people who drink too much (hopefully it may show them how silly they look when they are drunk and they will slow down) but also it could help in other aspects of life. When someone witnesses a crime but isn't sure exactly how it went down when they are repeating it to the police because they are traumatized. There are some down sides I considered to this...... such as intimate moments; you wouldn't be able to control when someone is recording what you are doing with them when you are having sex and such. (this could be very bad) so obviously there are kinks in this but this is the best invention I have at this point.
I found some issues in my research; first off I learned that google is actually already working on a contact lens that can take pictures and record already. They are also working on a contact lens that can measure the glucose levels in diabetics which would be very helpful. The google glasses are similar to this idea however my contact lenses would be small enough and clear enough to not contain any glass and would be very easy to put in. I think it is only a matter of time before something like this is invented. The form that google is working on can also help the blind see, so it truly would be helpful!
I also found that if this was to be done researchers say that they would want to be able to have the camera have a wireless connection so that the video feed can be wirelessly automatically connected to any smart phone. The advancements in technology are so advanced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELc1NiT4zCQ
http://www.tested.com/tech/1633-smart-contact-lenses-pave-the-way-for-augmented-reality/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-contact-lens-may-have-integrated-camera-report-says/
For the last couple of months, I’ve really been trying to pinpoint an invention that was totally not invented. I did not just want to modify a product or service that was already out there. And, for the last couple of months, I was coming up with blanks. I have always had in interest with infants, toddlers, kids (in general). Most of this deep interest in better the
life of parents comes from me being a parent as well.
The invention that I would like to do research on is a light mattress or mattress pad that replicates the parent(s) breathing pattern. There has been a controversial debate among parents and doctors for decades on sleeping arrangements. Some parents believe that sleeping with the child is best for them, while other parents believe that the child should be sleeping in a crib outside of the room. While most of this controversy is surrounded of children who are 0-6 months of age, doctors and health professionals see both sides of the debate.
My invention would make an easier transition from co-sleeping to the crib. This mattress or mattress pad can be programed according to the mother or fathers’ breathing pattern. This would be a subtle rise in the mattress/pad that would replicate and provide security and warmth to that child. Parents are afraid of putting their children at risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Health professionals and parents alike are debating what is best for their child. I am not siding with one or the other, I am simply trying to make the transition to the crib easier for the child and the parent. Every baby is different, every child has a different set of needs and personality. In cultures throughout the world, it is very common for the mother to co-sleep with that child until the age of 3-8 months. All newborns, infants, toddlers, adolescents, etc. need a specific amount of time to sleep. Even as adults, we need a specific amount of time to sleep, although many of us do not. Life gets busy, and we tend to push sleep to the side. Many of us also know that by the end of the week, we are exhausted.
From a parent standpoint, I have witnessed and partaken in both co-sleeping and crib sleeping, both of which were the right fit for my boys. One was more difficult than the other, but like I mentioned above, every child is different. My invention could revolutionize this industry and take out the fear of SIDS.
References:
http://scienceofmom.com/2012/07/25/new-research-on-bedsharing-and-infant-breathing/
http://www.naturalchild.org/james_mckenna/babies_need.html
http://www.parenting.com/article/crib-sleeping-vs-co-sleeping
http://www.netmums.com/baby/sleep/the-science-of-sleep#differences
The invention I would like to create would be used by people who are deaf. Although we can use our sight while driving are vehicles often include dinging in some different cases. Those who are unable to hear can not hear those dings. What I would like to do is replace those dings with vibrations on the steering wheel to help them be more aware.
I found that in at least 26 different countries those who are deaf are not allowed to drive a vehicle or have a license. Drivers who are deaf have panoramic mirrors to help them be more aware of their surroundings. If they have a vibration then they will know that they have something to look out for. In the US there are about 4.81 million people who are deaf. Not only could this be useful for those 4.81 million but every other driver that they encounter.
These vibrations could be used when there is something near the vehicle, like a car that is maybe to close or even a person. There could also be vibrations when a person does not have there lights on in the dark or if they are not wearing a seat belt. Another useful time to have vibrations would be if there are police or ambulance sirens. These vibrations could be more rapid so they know there is an emergency to look out for. The car could be made to distinguish those sounds and have the vibrations start once they are heard.
I think that this could be extremely useful to help those are unable to hear become more aware of their surroundings while they are driving. Those who can hear have dings or they are able to hear honking and sirens so it gives them a bit more of a heads up. Deaf people get some discrimination with driving and I believe that this could help their case. There are many concerns and this would help put some of them to rest.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/soundandfury/culture/living.html
http://hubpages.com/hub/Deaf-People-Drive
http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/topics/driving_and_the_deaf.htm
as for many weeks, i've been really thinking about what it is that i should do my final project on, i've thought about technology, but everything seems to be already invented, but then i finally go online and see what needs to be added to this wonderful society of ours, but then all the ideas that i found weren't interesting enough for me. so then i thought about going outside of the states, which mean a different country, what can someone country use. well for me i didn't have to look far, i am from a third world country, the newest nation in the world, which is SOUTH Sudan. Africa as a whole needs help, from poverty, to food and water etc. So as for my country, it's in a war zone as of right now since December of 2013, many people are displaced from their homes and they are sent to different areas in east Africa like Ethiopia or Kenya.
what i would like for those who have been displaced, and are walking thousands and thousands of miles to safety, i would create a tub like device, it would be a rubber tube that's like a glass tube that you use in science class for experimental proposes, instead it would be rubber and it would have a cap on it. what that tube would have is three different buttons, those buttons are to be pressed when you have installed water in it. because water is a very important source for survival, these people walking miles and miles carrying their belongings, their small children and maybe food, i would make it weightless and easy for it to be attach to most things so it's a hassle for them to carry it. since they're walking, they're likely find lakes, rivers, ponds, and even creeks mostly every where they are since sudan is mostly land with plenty of water. when they find a water source, they would fill up the tube with water, the first button has to be pressed every time you fill the tube with new water because the first button would be the one that get rid of the bacteria from the water, the second button would be for the temperature of the water, whether you want it cold or outside temperature, it's a choice, and the third one would be to add flavor on to them, you would choose from the flavor selection that comes within the tube, every time is designed with it's own flavor, since you randomly get a tube,you just choose from the flavors that you already have with your tube.
i think this invention would help a lot of people, not only in South Sudan or Africa itself, but in a country where clean drinking water is a problem, if you could get access to water with the tube, then you should feel safe enough to drink them because that tube would be the key to clean drinking water and you'd be able to take it anywhere with you.
http://globalwaterinitiative.org/gwi-in-east-africa/
http://www.clearwaterinitiative.org/
http://thewaterproject.org/
The invention I would like to create has to do with the problem of visual crowding that was discussed in chapter 3 of the text. Visual crowding tells us that the more objects in the peripheral the harder to distinguish objects. We also know that the peripheral we don’t really see details as well, this vision is mainly for detecting movement. I believe that there could be an electronic device that could be attached to the inside of the vehicle that would detect eye movement. This invention will be helpful in preventing texting and driving. The statistics tell us that texting while driving is as impairing driving under the influence.
In the research I have done, this type of technology is being developed in other areas. There are glasses, and video games that are controlled by eye movement. The use of infrared light is the most common way of tracking, so the device would need to be adjustable for individual drivers. The device will also need to measure length and number of instances that eyes are not focused at the road.
We use a device for repeat drunk drivers that make them have to blow into a device before starting their cars. In this case we will not simply be able to turn off the car as that would also be dangerous. I have come up with some warnings and possible transmission of offensives to a centralized location.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_tracking
http://steelseries.com/products/controllers/steelseries-sentry-gaming-eye-tracker
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/eye-tracking-tech-will-be-open-to-iphones-others/?_r=0
Remembering the last time I took my mother to see her ophthalmologist and seeing her go through the pain of having to get an injection in both her eyes was the inspiration for my invention. I can still feel her hand tightly squeeze mine as she takes the first shot. Then the second one.
I also remember that if the doctor moves just slightly to the left or right they will bruise her eye ball. Then my mother will spend three days looking like if someone hit her in the eye and complaining of how bad she looks.
MY INVENTION: I would like to invent a safer, easier, and less painful way for people who have Age-related Macular Degeneration and have to get the medicine into their eye without having to look right at the needle coming and/or risk injurying their eye in the process.
And that is pretty much as far as my thoughts have got.
My research thus far was learning about the disorder, now I will turn my focus to development and that process of administrating the medication into the eye.
Not only did I chose this invention on behalf of my mother but also for all those that macular degeneration affects.
Age-related Macular degeneration is widespread. The number of people living with macular degeneration is similar to that of those who have been diagnosed with all types of invasive cancers. Statistics show that 11 million people in the United States have some form of age-related macular degeneratio. and this number is expected to double to nearly 22 million by 2050. As we know, age is the main reason for MD. The risk of getting advanced age-related macular degeneration increases from 2% for those ages 50-59, to nearly 30% for those over the age of 75.
Those two statistics/numbers really scared me, especially because my husband and myself would be at the age where AMD could affect us. With my mother's history, I feel I might be at greater risk.
All I can think of are those mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and so forth that will have to continue to do what my mother will have to do for the rest of her life.
I hope my thoughts and/or my invention could really lead to something.
You never know.
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/wilmer/services/macular_degeneration_center/clinicalresearch.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2580067/
http://www.brightfocus.org/macular/about/understanding/facts.html
Terms: Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), macula, eye, disorder, ophthalmologist, injection, medication, cancers, diagnoses, invention. needle, statistics and adminstrating.
My inspiration for the final product is twofold:
1) I’m obsessed with music, and am constantly on the prowl for new music to expand my horizons and experience new and different types of music
2) In effort to find new/different music, I often get distracted while studying, etc.
My product is an app that can compile all of the audio sources on my phone and create randomized playlists. It would be awesome if the app could also use the sounds present in the environment to recognize what type of environment I am in and therefore make inferences about my music and what type of music I might want to listen to. We know music is closely related to emotional response, therefore emotion derived from the environment can be matched to the emotional experience associated with a given song, and this association can be the basis for the app’s choice of music.
I had to do quite a bit of research for this project. I started with known emotional response to music. It turns out that music has a major impact on emotional response. We know that different emotion
Perception of different frequency sounds is a complex process which relies on the anatomy of the ear to filter and amplify sound, transduce mechanical energy into electrical energy, which then passes to the cortex where it can be processed. This process, known as mechanoelectrical transduction (MET), is not a part of our conscious awareness. It is also so fast that we understand sound almost immediately after hearing it. This makes hearing much faster and sensitive than vision because it utilizes MET rather than biochemical processes.
Although we may understand sound instantaneously, sound processing in the brain doesn’t stop there. Sound information is then passed to other areas of the brain so that we can recognize, react, and make inferences about the sounds we hear. My particular interest here is how sound is perceived, and the subsequent recognition, reaction and inferential processes.
We know that music affects emotion (Vuoskoski and Eerola 2015). Sandra Garrido’s systematic review of studies measuring mood and emotion tease the statistical differences in impact of music on mood and emotion. A single study that was reviewed showed music to improve mood by providing an opportunity for reflection, solace, or catharsis of negative affect (Garrido and Schubert 2011).
We also happen to know that music inspires narrative and can generate visual imagery via this inspired narrative (Vuoskoski and Eerola 2015). It does this by looking at the relationship between chords in the melody. The idea is to see how many minor and major chords are present in the melody, and how the progression produces a story. By the way, the tendency for creating narration as well as relating it to music is sincerely human. The way music is perceived depends not only on the psychophysics of sound, but also the unique combination of emotions created by a melody and the contextual environment in which music almost always exists. Outside of a sound laboratory, we do not often listen to music in a vacuum. We always have information about it, cognitive processes regarding the music itself. For example, we expect to hear a certain type of music at a party, and other types of music in other environments. Without giving it much thought, we have lots of expectations about the music we hear. We also know there is a social and cultural meaning associated with music (Bakker and Martin 2014). We will refer to these collectively as extra musical factors. If the app could evaluate environmental, social and cultural cues present, it could make inferences about the user’s mood, the basis for which is deeply rooted in recent psychological research. Given the individual preferences represented by the user’s other audio inputs, the app can randomly choose songs to correlate with the user’s expected mood.
Sources:
Sandra Garrido 2015. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain
A systematic review of the studies measuring mood and emotion in response to music
http://psycnet.apa.org/psycarticles/2015-14740-001.pdf
Jonna K. Vuoskoski and Tuomas Eerola 2015. Extramusical information contributes to emotions induced by music
http://pom.sagepub.com/content/43/2/262.full.pdf+html
David Radford Bakker and Frances Heritage Martin 2014. Musical chords and emotion: Major and minor triads are processed for emotion
http://ejournals.ebsco.com/Direct.asp?AccessToken=46KY6Y58KBP2C6155YT99KJCPJ9585TKPK&Show=Object
For my invention, I will be attempting to help individuals with the visual-field defect by creating away for them to adapt to their environment. We already have bionic eyes that allow the blind to see with limits, and the technology for this has made leaps and bounds. The bionic eyes are able to detect certain causes of blindness and, for most of the individuals, are able to allow them to see, at least some of the world. I chose to look at the capabilities of improving the bionic eye to be able to detect issues with vision that effect spatial recognition. If we can create a way to correct poor vision and allow the blind to “see” we certainly can figure out a way to include the visual-field defect in the “healing party.” With this technology, we can even move in the direction of Microchips that detect deficiencies in the brain and eye so they can be corrected with very little surgery.
The Argus II, released in Europe in 2013, was the first bionic eye that actually worked. How it would communicate was that the camera that was attached to the glasses would transmit a picture of something (say a building) to the device that powered the eyes. After the picture has been sent, it is then transmitted by electrodes to the brain where it determines what the image is and how to perceive it.
The technology is rough, but from the research that I have done it is fairly possible. Correcting vision is a very difficult and time consuming project. I feel, however, that the technology is available and we can move this forward as we get to the point of creating a product like mine.
http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/first-bionic-eye-sees-light-130206.htm
http://health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/modern-technology/bionic-eye1.htm
http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/visual-field-defects