Handwriting assisted tool- Due 27th May

Combining/integrating AR

Creating a compact, advanced system

Investigating specific problems and avenues to target through experienced workers/patients/users 

Refining target audience 

First step

Write questionnaire or interview questions and gather set of targets (Before Thursday class)

Continuation of brainstorm and begin visualising brainstorm/precedent

Second Step…

It’ll be important to gain a proper understanding about what is out there, what works, what doesn’t within schools, hospitals and homes.

Starting with Schools- A questionnaire aimed at teaching at a primary school level. 

5 Questions 

Luckily enough Cooper and Toms mothers worked in a primary school so we were able to send them a questionnaire to see what products there are on the current market and what we need to do to improve and help young children's Hand Writing. 

Tom's Mum

What difficulties do they tend to ‘encounter’ rather than ‘occur’? When very young and learning to write, or someone older with specific learning difficulties... it is the grip on the writing implement that is a challenge. They may have fine motor skill challenges and a pen/ pencil is narrow and hard to control.

Currently on the market? You can buy triangular pencils and rubber grips that can be added to pencils to encourage fingers to take up the correct position. Children do not always have these available to them. 

Students who are young will benefit from assistive technology to help build and develop muscle memory. Students who have limited control of their muscles in their hands, an inability to grip would also. I have a student in my class who was never taught how to hold his pencil correctly, at age 12 he now takes twice as long to record anything on paper, than his peers. He is super bright and is very frustrated by this. It would not be too late to rectify this with the right equipment.

Are there any interactive fun challenges/games within handwriting already? If not, could something like this help provide change/learning?

Handwriting no longer features as a stand alone subject in the NZCurriculum. There are many speed typing apps, but nothing I can think of to speed up writing or increase legibility- other than worksheets, copying paragraphs, sentences or working on various surfaces such as whiteboards.

It would be great if there was any way it could be families in any way. This is what students now respond to- could it beep/ flash/ say something if they complete tasks accurately? Could they trace lines around mazes? Scoring? Be encouraged to want to use it- modify human behaviour by rewarding for the more times a child uses it? Repetition of action will help the brain connect neurons and build automatic muscle memory where possible.

Hope that helps.

Coopers Mum

Handwriting - children generally struggle with the grip on pencil - determining which hand they should use and difficulty with fine motor skills.  Children also struggle with letter discrimination ie getting their b/d’s muddled.

Several different options of grip attachments, fine motor skill activities such as using tweezers to pick up fluffy balls and drop them into small containers, apps where the student traces the letter or number.

Handwriting programs that use a story to help the children remember the correct formation of their letters - Casey Caterpillar.

Children also generally can control chalk better - so learning handwriting on a blackboard with short pieces of chalk helps the student drip tightly and press firmly to get better control of their handwriting.

There are several apps that children enjoy however they require the children to use their finger to trace the numeral and letter which is quite different from using a pen/pencil.

A fun writing tool that would change colour if the letter was formatted incorrectly.

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.nz/tommymartin164/341-handwriting-game/

Our initial Idea is to make a pen and involve it with a writing game of some sort. We wondered if we could link an app to the pen somehow and allow a game of some sort with a scoring system/ vibrating moto to keep the kids entertained while the learning to improve their handwriting. We learned that we needed to shape the pen with 3 points of impact so that the child can learn how to grip the pen properly as well as using a stylus to interact with the touch screen. We also wanted to include a case to go with the game/pen

We had an early Idea of possibly using paper and a conductive ink or lead. We found out early that this was not a good Idea because although they are conductive they are very touch and go.

We wanted to make a possible Ipad case to go with the pen so we thought a rubbery texture would be good for a kids product. This was a simple cylinder in orange TPU it worked perfectly was plush and could be squeezed but was also was very strong.

We wanted to test how the components worked and fitted in the pen so we made a test. We fitted a Arduino Nano into the back as it was the biggest component. After this test we where ready to print the final pen.

We came together and decided that these were pages that could help show off our app. We thought Pages such as different levels and an avatar to customise as a reward system would help keep the children entertained and push themselves. From here we decided to remove the race page as we felt it wasn't necessary and to hard to code.

This is the coding that Matthew used link an ardunio mini board to cooperate with a screen and trigger the vibration motor on the pen.    

Matthew managed to code a screen of the game we wanted to implement with the pen. He was able to make it Vibrate with a vibration motor when the cursor on the computer went out of the A or B. This makes the fundamentals of our game possible.

After a failed attempt at one side because of the curves on the base we were trying to print on we made adjustments. We made both sides we print of flat and added a spine. We then decided to make a holster for the pen and a side to match it which we later printed and glue to the case. As you can see above the Ipad fits inside the case. 

Final Pen and case sanded and Painted.

Unfortunately since we have to screen-share from a computer our stylus can register pressure however it does react and vibrates when the pen comes in-contact with the black on the screen. We can use this too show off how our product works.

We ran into a problem with our stylus that we worked out that it has to be conductive to work. Matthew solved this by wrapping copper tap around where the stylus and lead it to the ground wire for the Vibration Motor.  

1. Ideation MM TM CV

2. Early Electronic Test MM TM CV

3. Pen Iterations MM TM CV 

4. Material Tests MM TM CV

5. Design Iteration MM TM CV

6. Printing and Testing  MM TM CV

7. Finishing and Refining Physical Products CV TM

8. Coding MM

9. Wiring MM

10. App Development TM CV MM

11. Filming MM TM CV

12. Editing MM

13. Rendering CV TM

14. Photography CV 

15. Blog CV

16. Case Development TM

17. Storyboarding CV 

18. Final CAD Designs TM