It will help with iPads, controls, plates or anything you might want to mount or carry on your lap.

We have just seen our first review, and I would like to share it.

Recently launched in this country but created in New Zealand and are a very good design. They are absorbant, non sweaty and not noisy or uncomfortable to sleep on. The Mattress protectors look just like ordinary ones, so they are ‘inclusive designs’ too. Recommended!

The company behind this is also doing some very interesting looking work in the area of assisting people with visual impairments.

via designboom:

“a prototype camera which, rather than capturing an image

of its environment once the shutter button has been pressed, instead produces an output of text describing the visualized scene.”

Obvious benefits to the EbD community. Look forward to seeing how it develops.

My name is Oliver Brunt, I’m an Industrial design student at Northumbria University. I’ve been fortunate enough to get one of ideas through to the final of a national design competition. The brief was inclusive design; try and create a product that works for many users. It would be great if anyone could give me some feedback on my idea. Here it is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63256535@N06/6927912194/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63256535@N06/7073993837/in/photostream/

“This simple concept crosses many boundaries, boundaries that ordinarily limits the use of a product. Whether you are able bodied, blind, colour blind, deaf, suffering from dementia or any other ailment, you could find benefit from this product. These series of textured and coloured tabs can stick anywhere, door handles, drawers, buttons, watch straps, bracelets, keys, tinned food and many more things. They all revolve around the exact same idea. Depending on the user and the placement of their tab it could mean different things; the texture to a blind person could be a physical reminder, the contrast of colours could be a visual reminder for a colour blind person, a different texture on a button on an item of clothing could prompt an action for someone with dementia, a selection of tabs on a bracelet could be a list of things to do for an able bodied person and so on. The user decides. This system of associating texture or colour with an action or event promotes routine, streamline daily life within all users regardless of abilities, and removes the need for any complicated electronic alarms or reminder systems. Some more examples could be using different textures to differentiate different tinned foods for a blind person, a watch tab could be a visual reminder for someone to take their medication, a button tab could be a reminder for someone with dementia to brush their teeth when the get dressed in a morning. The possibilities are literally endless, but all it really is, is a piece of easily manufactured coloured plastic and silicone. But its the context and simplicity of this idea that makes it so plausible.“

Any help or feedback will be greatly appreciated.

There’s nothing I like more than than a good old fashioned cooked breakfast or fry-up as it’s also fondly known. For me, the all important foundation is a good poached egg, which up until recently I really didn’t have the culinary confidence to even attempt. But this has all changed since I stumbled across the poachpod while browsing in the Design Museum shop.

The poachpod is a flexible, non-stick silicone cooking tool for poaching eggs, baking and moulding, which is microwave and dishwasher safe.

To poach an egg: add a small amount of oil to the inside of the poachpod and coat evenly. Bring 1.5″ of water to the boil in a sauté pan or equivalent, reduce to a simmer, crack an egg into the poachpod  (I always crack the egg into a small glass or cup before pouring it into the poachpod to make this easier to do and remove any shell that might have crept in there : S ) and float it in the simmering water. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 4 to 6 minutes or to the firmness that you prefer. When ready remove the poachpod from the water. To remove the egg from the poachpod, run a spoon around the edge of the egg and gently push it out.

I’ve never been much of a cook and really wanted to give it a go, although having MS means that I’m unable to stand up in the kitchen for long and my poor dexterity can make cooking tasks a real challenge. So I’ve decided to start small, finding useful gadgets along the way to make cooking that little bit easier and more manageable.

I must say I couldn’t be happier with my poachpods (sold as a pair) and I was interested to see that you can now buy a poachpod lifter to help place the poachpod in and remove it from simmering water while saving yourself from burning your fingers. Being a complete and utter poachpod devotee, I decided to buy a poachpod lifter. Although this has proven to be of some use, you have to be extremely careful when using it to lift a filled poachpod, doing this slowly and gently, otherwise the poachpod and its eggy contents can slip through the C-shaped holder causing much frustration and mess! : ( I’m keen to see if I can “hack” my poachpod lifter with some sugru to make it more stable and less likely to drop the poachpod it’s holding, so I’ll keep you posted! Otherwise, a simple slotted spoon might just have to do the job instead : )

]]> http://enabledbydesign.org/community/poachpod-lifter/feed/ 3 http://enabledbydesign.org/community/poachpod-lifter/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/enabledbydesign/mvNL/~3/KuOA-mJcCQ4/ http://enabledbydesign.org/community/flo-dali-esq-walking-and-standing-stick/#comments Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:32:01 +0000 Philippa@TFPC http://enabledbydesign.org/community/flo-dali-esq-walking-and-standing-stick/ Remember “Design for Life”, the student design competition on BBC2 with Philippe Starck?

The winning design, the Flo is set to launch at Naidex in a couple of weeks.

What do you think?

So what’s so important about today, I hear you ask?!? Well, the story starts back in April last year when I received an email out of the blue inviting me to speak at a one day ‘sandpit‘ event at Loughborough University. The aim of the event was to look at how a new and emerging production process called Additive Manufacturing (AM) could be used to change people’s lives and support social and economic development in society. The day would focus on three important themes: energy, education and assisted living. And yes you’ve guessed it, my job was to talk about independent living and how I thought Additive Manufacturing could be harnessed in this area.

Always up for a challenge and armed with a basic knowledge of Additive Manufacturing, I set about reading up on the subject and putting together a presentation for the AM: The Future event on 6 July 2011:

I feel very lucky to have been involved in this event as it gave me the chance to learn about developments that could make a huge real life difference in the field of independent living, as well as meet members of the world-leading Additive Manufacturing Research Group at Loughborough University. I was even given my very own piece that had been additively manufactured to take home with me as a souvenir!

For me the most exciting application for Additive Manufacturing is the potential for products to be customised to make them easier for individuals to use and in turn make them more accessible. I’m extremely passionate about Design for All and feel that this approach can go a long way in addressing people’s needs, but one design can never be truly accessible to everyone. Therefore the scope for Additive Manufacturing to further customise these products could really help us to move closer to my dream of mainstreaming accessibility, but this isn’t the end of the story…

Being a sandpit event, the aim was to focus on the subjects of energy, education and assisted living and explore how Additive Manufacturing could be used to make a positive change in each area. It was fantastic to see such an animated and passionate group of people coming together around the theme of independent living, all working towards a proposal that went on to receive funding to take it forward. Now this is where the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) comes in…

Each year the RSA runs the Student Design Awards programme which asks young designers to demonstrate how the insights and processes of design can increase the resourcefulness of people and communities. Being a well established award scheme working with university students and recent graduates from across the UK, our sandpit group decided to set a brief inviting entrants to:

Design an assistive technology product, service or equivalent that involves additive manufacturing and uses a consumer-driven & people-centred design philosophy.

The result was the Mine for Life brief which was developed and is supported by Enabled by Design and Loughborough University. Back in September 2011, I presented our brief on the Tutor Briefing Day at the RSA and entries closed on 16 March 2012, so all that’s left to do now is the judging! Today is the first meeting of two that I’ll be attending at the RSA with a stellar panel of judges including (in alphabetical order just to be fair! ; )

- Susan Brumpton FRSA, Chief Executive, MERU (Chair)

- Philippa Aldrich, Founder, The Future Perfect Company

- Michael Anastassiades, Designer

- Kenneth Grange RDI, Kenneth Grange Design

- Dr Diane Gyi, Senior Lecturer, Loughborough Design School, Loughborough University

- Richard Hague, Professor of Innovative Manufacturing / AMRG (Additive Manufacturing Research Group) Head; Director, EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Additive Manufacturing, Loughborough University

- Dr Samantha Porter, Senior Lecturer, Loughborough Design School, Loughborough University

- Denise Stephens, Co-founder, Enabled by Design

Today will be spent shortlisting the entries for the Mine for Life brief, followed by a day of interviews in May before the overall winner is announced. It certainly has involved a lot of hard work to get this far, but I’m extremely excited to be involved and can’t wait to see what people have been working on in response to the brief!

Watch this space for more details and I promise to report back after the winner has been announced…