This week I have been working on the prototype. I realized that our older design did not fit the leg as well as it could have, so I experimented with paper to create a design that is shaped like the leg. Since our goal is to have a prototype by the end of June, I wanted to create paper prototype designs of the knee enclosure since paper is easier to manipulate and less expensive than neoprene.
Since we want to create a sleek design, I created a prototype with a 4.5″ x 4.5″ panel for the EL wire.
This prototype fit nicely on a leg.
Since I patterned the design to fit to the leg, this prototype fits nicely with the tapered shape of the leg. Our past designs did not take into account the tapering of the thigh.
However, this design still does not address the issue of needing to align the flex sensor to the middle of the back of the knee. Since one side of this design is fixed, the flex sensor can not be aligned in the center.
Another issue with this design was that the panel was too small. To address these issues, I created a larger panel (5.5″ x 5.5″). With this panel, I tried to address the issue with alignment by having both sides of the panel have adjustable buckles. However, while the bottom can be adjustable, it may be more complicated for the user than we would like it to be. We are also exploring having the flex sensor be adjustable instead of the bottom of the thigh enclosure.