OVERVIEW OF THINK TANK - THE GLASSES PRODUCT

The Think Tank glasses is a wearable technology with the Think Tank application built-in. The glasses setup was chosen because it is an everyday object that many elderly people have. It would be unobtrusive since many elderly are already used to wearing glasses. This would also reduce the chance of them forgetting the glasses somewhere or leaving them at home when they need it. It also gives us the opportunity to adjust the clarity of the interface to any vision problems an elderly user may have.

The glasses consist of two lenses that can reflect projected images for the wearer. Our original concept consisted of a pair of glasses that only had one large lens across both eyes of the user. This was done so that the interface could be display on the whole screen. From feedback we received, we learned that this might damage the elderly user’s eyesight since the screen is so close to the face. Thus, we changed the design so that we have two lenses that can reflect light so that it seems like the interface is projected in front of the user. The interface will be fixed in the middle of the user’s field of vision.

The glasses also have a microphone and earbuds so that voice control can be used to navigate the interface. The microphone extending down the mouth is necessary to get clear voice input from the user and prevent errors in voice recognition. The earbuds can be used so that the user can hear clear messages from the system. This is particularly important for elderly users whose hearing may be bad.

The original concept of the glasses had a projector on the side so that users could project the interface onto a wall. We decided that this was unnecessary since there would no need to share their screen with anyone else. We also originally had a scrolling button as a way to navigate the interface without the voice control. We took this aspect out since the feature was extraneous as we could navigate solely using voice. We decided that we could deal with the inconsistencies of voice recognition in our design instead of adding another feature that could do the same thing. Since both voice control and the scrolling button have their flaws, we decided to stick to one medium that was easier for our users: voice control. The button would be difficult for elderly users that do not have full motor function because of arthritis or other damage. It also makes it very difficult to type anything into the system. Therefore, we stuck with only voice control as a way to navigate the interface.