MIT Media Lab’s DIy workshop titled ‘Engineering the Eye’ was held on July 7th through 13th, the Design Innovation Workshop series and the MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design are holding the first DIy event: Engineering the Eye, with the LV Prasad Eye Institute(L.V.P.E.I.), BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, and the Perkins School for the Blind. I attended it and was selected under the ‘Reinventing vision’ track of the workshop.
Our team of 4 were chosen to work in the field of ‘Science and Math’ and after our visit to a blind school and L.V.P.E.I., we decided to work on making a geometry kit for the blind. There were existing kits but we wanted to create one that was inclusive in design.
We were inspired by some of the tools we saw being used. I deeply felt that every designer should know about the Taylor frame because it makes complicated arithmetic and algebra easy to comprehend for the blind student.
Getting back from the school, we sat down to brainstorm a design. After some thought and paper prototyping, we decided to 3D print our concept so that we could start testing it. Testing involved roleplaying as well as asking blind students to use it. After fixing some preliminary concerns we were able to come out with a final(for now) prototype.
This project was researched, designed, prototyped and presented/displayed over a period of 5 days. As part of a team, I was responsible and involved with all the parts of the design process. I also designed the poster, banner and a flyer for the exhibition on the last day of the workshop.
The documentation for the project can be found here.
an Innocent Life 