We’ve done a lot for the prototype in the past few weeks especially now that Miranda is back. She’s been working on making different prototypes for our device. Right now, they’ve been made out of paper using a buckle that we printed from a 3D printer. She’ll start making an actual prototype made out of neoprene this week.

Last week, I spent time testing the bend sensor that Halley made. I tested the device on Miranda this time. They did give relatively consistent results, but they also created an interesting pattern when it was turned into a graph:

I tested two bend sensors. One could bend anywhere along the sensor, the other had plastic on each side so that the bend would only occur in one place.

A big problem we’re currently having is about the design of the prototype and how it will attach to the leg. We want it to be adjustable to any size of leg. However, we also want the EL panel to always face up as well as the sensor to be placed in the right place according to the different leg sizes. We also want this to be easy for patients to put on, especially since they may have limited movement. We’ve put out many ideas, but we’re not sure exactly what we want to do.

One of the things we want to do to figure out our design is to see if the flex sensor will be able to give consistent results if it is placed on the side of the knee. So far, I’ve only tested it on the bottom of the knee. This next week, I’ll be testing the flex sensor on the side of the knee to see if it will still give consistent results.

Another thing that I will try to do is cut the EL tape and see if I can reattach it. Swamy found a tutorial that I will try to follow. We decided that the EL tape may be good for the outer power ring around the device.

-Alice