In a Design-Driven Innovation (Verganti, 2014) approach, the goal was to innovate on the meaning of a medium format system in order to find a viable product solution. As a result the vision is to step away from the traditional mindset of considering the camera as a box that simply records an image, but as a smart tool that supports the photographer creating his envisioned photo. In this proposal, the mirrorless system would be enriched by the emerging technology Machine Learning (Gartner, 2016) in which the product is aware of the use environment and uses data to correlate the user’s preferences. The ergonomic support for a two-fold postures and an adaptable user interface are the two hallmarks of the camera. As the first implementation of Machine Learning, the system senses and reallocates button functionality when the photographer switches hand position. Ultimately, the electronic platform is future-proof for an interpolating industry.

This graduation report describes the development of a personalised and customised knitwear experience for the company STRIKKS. The goal was to design an interactive experience that will sell personalised knitwear in a retail environment. In this experience an accurate display of the garment should give the customer insights into how the garment will look on their body and will enable them to make decisions that will lead to a satisfied result. The experience should convince the customer of purchasing the garment but should also avoid disappointment after trying the garment on the first time. This concept was validated using a user test. 6 Participants used the garment visualisation to create their own unique sweaters which have been produced by STRIKKS. Comparing the visualisation and knitted sweaters confirmed the value that is being added with a visualisation. Based on this test conclusions were drawn and final recommendations were given to STRIKKS for further development of the concept.

This master thesis reports the research and design activities about designing a new Philips intense pulsed light (IPL) Lumea Prestige hair removal device for generation Z users. Philips invented an Intense pulsed light hair removal device for a painless hair removal experience. However, the new consumers generation Z are coming to the market who are born between 1997 to 2012. Philips would like to see how the IPL device can fit into generation Z consumers. Firstly, research was conducted about the current usability issues of the IPL hair removal device. Secondly, generation Z was selected as the target group because of the current market trend. Thus, user research was conducted about understanding the generation Z personal care characteristics. Contextmapping method was used here for deeper understanding of the users. Next, research was done about finding out how to match the current IPL device insights with the characteristics of the generation Z, and how the Philips IPL device can fit into the generation Z personal care routine. In the end, a design goal was discovered based on the research. Afterwards, co-creation and ideation were conducted for discovering ideas for the design. Moreover, an exploration on shapes was conducted as well. In the end, a new shape and a new design were created for the generation Z users. In the end, usability tests have been conducted with real generation Z participants in order to validate the design goal.

Falls in the elderly are a leading cause of injury, affecting one in three older adults annually. These fall incidents can lead to various disabling conditions, and therefore have the ability to affect one’s quality of life and independence. Not only are falls potentially taxing to the individual, they are also responsible for a big portion of annual health care costs. Due to an ageing society, the number of falls and their consequences will grow in parallel with the expanding number of seniors, becoming an even greater concern for the health care system. Therefore, there is an ever-increasing need to develop (cost-)effective fall prediction systems to reduce these financial and physical burdens associated with the consequences of a fall. Introducing the design proposal of my graduation thesis: smart insoles with accessory mobile application, the ‘StApp’. The insoles with an integrated fall prediction smart system capture the physiological risk factor of an impaired minimum toe clearance (MTC) variable, signal the impending danger to the user, and hence, aid falls prevention in the elderly. The final product consists of three segments, detect - warn - and inform, represented in the two separate products. (Detect) Smart insoles that analyse and monitor the user’s gait in real-time, in particular the MTC parameter, through a sensing technology integrated in the sole. (Warn) When MTC values display an apparent risk, the user is alerted through a technological intervention. This presents itself in the form of vibrational stimulus, embedded in the support arch of the smart insole. Hereby, the whole smart system, including the intervention, is embedded in the smart insole, discreetly concealed. (Inform) For the sensor data to be meaningful to the user, an accessory mobile application monitoring the MTC- and multiple other gait parameters is suggested. The StApp presents concrete information and advice on sufficient and safe exercise to improve the user’s MTC and overall gait and balance. An experimental research study was conducted to preliminarily validate the viability of the main product-idea of the smart insoles, studying the effect of the product’s intervention. A minimum of 2 minutes of treadmill walking was analysed for two young adults (1 M, 1 F) using the Tracker motion analysis software. The effect of the intervention was clearly illustrated in the data gathered in this pilot test, as the effect of the intervention deemed to be statistically for all administered vibrational stimuli. It seems to be an appropriate tool to optimize the toe clearance parameters in the pursuit for strategies of falls prevention. However, further in-depth research is required to explore the intervention’s characteristics and study the effect of the intervention on the elderly’s gait. Finally, as the wearable technology depicted enables optimization of elderly care, healthcare professionals who might be interested in giving more personalized advice to their patients will benefit from the design of the smart insole and accessory StApp, presented in this project.

The goal of this thesis is to design a kite seat with optimal ergonomic fit for beginners in kite schools. Before designing, it is important to understand the context and create anthropometric guidelines for the target group. The seat will be used for sit-kitesurfing, which originates from the sport kitesurfing. Its target group focuses on people with a physical disability such as SCI, amputees or spina bifida. The difference with kitesurfing is that the setup exists of a seat mounted on an aluminium frame. This frame goes onto a specially designed board for this purpose. The project has been set up in cooperation with the Willem Hooft Foundation. This is an organisation aimed at improving the accessibility of adapted watersports, with a focus on kitesurfing. Research shows that accessibility to sports in general is lower for people with a physical disability. However, this is expected to be even lower for sit-kitesurfing. Currently, the availability of adapted courses is limited and people are left to themselves. This means buying all the gear before even trying the sport and learning the sport without qualified instructors. Improving the accessibility is done in cooperation with kiteschools offering adapted courses, where beginners can try out the sport in a safe environment. What stops most kiteschools from offering these courses is the relatively high cost of the specialised gear. Currently, the biggest part of the costs consists of the kite seats. At least four out of seven different seat sizes are necessary to organise kite courses. Replacing those four to seven seats by a single, adaptable seat will greatly reduce the cost for kiteschools. Next to the financial aspect, there are practical and ergonomical benefits. An example is the time-consuming and difficult task of changing the right seat size to the frame. Ergonomically, the fit of these seats is often not optimised for the beginning kitesurfer of the target group. The context, literature and desktop research resulted in key insights and points of improvement. Where information was still lacking, additional user or expert interviews were performed. Anthropometric data has been gathered through existing datasets on DINED. However, this information was not specific for the target group. Additional manual measurements and 3D-scans are performed with 9 people fitting the target group. This pointed out the differences between the target group and the existing datasets, but also provided lacking anthropometric data such as thigh width and location of the trochanter. Next to that the difficulties became clear, as everybody is different. The main design goals gathered from the research are improving pressure distribution through an optimal and tight fit. Challenges are the varying location of the trochanter, shape of the buttocks and the thighs. The final design is an adjustable seat, reducing the amount of needed kite seats from at least four to one. This will greatly decrease investment costs, effort, time and storage. The project’s outcome includes anthropometric design guidelines for a kite seat and a 1:1 prototype to test the concept.

The warehousing sector is among the top when it comes to the risk of developing work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs), in particular low back pain (LBP). In this sector, LBP is a prevalent issue, due to the nature of the job of lifting and moving (heavy) objects around. The issue has significant implications for the workers’ health, in terms of quality of life. Companies and society feel the consequences in terms of financial costs. This issue could be tackled by introducing smart technology in the form of a smart safety shoe. The concept has been developed by a strategic product design student and the strategic direction has been determined. This project explores the concept further and validates the idea of smart safety shoes to reduce the risk of LBP during manual handling, through technological means. To understand the problem of LBP in context, extensive literature research was conducted on ergonomics. Understanding what causes it and the current methods to reduce the risks. Further, looking into the possibility of detecting causes through technology. The research results were used to build a prototype for validation of the concept. The causality of LBP is not easy to point out, as multiple factors (physical, psychosocial, and individual) play a role in its development. Research does conclude that physical factors play a major role, which is related to heavy lifting, repetitiveness, and awkward postures. Manual handling can be performed safely as long as the weight is below 23 kg and correct postures are adopted. Though not all workers adhere to correct posture, and it is hard to track through observational methods. Postures can be tracked or detected through plantar pressure distribution (PPD), by using pressure sensors. These sensors can be placed within safety shoes and will collect PPD data of workers. The PPD data shows certain patterns and have characteristics that can be linked to different postures. The data can be analysed using machine learning, to automate the process and could be able to give feedback to the user when a risky posture is adopted. A pressure insole has been prototyped with the conducted research to collect PPD data of different postures (stoop lifting, lifting above shoulder height, and asymmetrical lifting). The collected data were manually analysed to understand how patterns may look like. A machine learning model was made, using a tree algorithm, to analyse the data as well. It can classify all the measured static postures with 100% accuracy. Dynamic lifting data were not analysed by the model yet as it needs additional data preparation. At this point, the concept needs more development to analyse dynamic data and to implement the hardware in the safety shoes. Based on the results, the core components of the concept have been proven to work and able to detect different postures with great accuracy. The idea of a smart safety shoe that can detect and warn the worker of potential injury is not far-fetched. This project is the first step in the development of the concept. Due to the complexity of the issue and required knowledge, additional research is needed for the continuation of the project. The posture database has to be set up, improving the machine learning model for dynamic lifting data, hardware design and a live feedback system. With these developments, a smart safety shoe could be brought to market that could improve workers' lives and save additional costs for companies.

Patients diagnosed with drop foot syndrome experience difficulties creating enough clearance during walking, resulting in stumbling over very small obstacles. An Ankle Foot Orthosis is an orthopaedic aid which limits the plantar flexion of the foot, providing a safe walking gait for the patient. Currently, these AFOs are vacuum formed over a machined foam reproduction of the patients leg. The patient specific geometry requirements make it ideal for the one-off production freedom of 3D printing. This master thesis investigated the feasibility of 3D printing a patient specific Ankle Foot Orthosis and explored the possible improvements compared to the current vacuum formed AFOs. The current vacuum formed AFOs provides suboptimal support and increases the energy cost of walking, this was taken into account when deciding the approach for this project. The approach was divided in the creation of an improved walking support and the investigation to other possible improvements of 3D printing. A new spring system was developed which provided the minimal required support during walking: free dorsiflexion and a constant counter moment during plantar flexion for every ankle. Rigged bending tests which simulated the ankle range of motion showed near perfect support results. However, the improved effect on the patient’s gait could not yet be proven. This was due to an imperfect testing prototype, the required low tolerances of the spring system which could not be met and the fact that the springs were not strong enough. Several design improvements have been proposed and can be found in the last chapter For COR, the best continuation of this project would be to use the gathered requirements and design improvements to develop a simple ‘plantar flexion stop AFO’. If an orthosis with sufficient support is developed, gradual dynamic improvements can be implemented to allow for more freedom of movement.

This report presents a design proposal for a product that will suppress the tremor of patients diagnosed with Essential Tremor (ET). People suffering from ET are restricted in their ability to function in everyday life, due to a constraint of performing delicate movements. Simple tasks, such as drinking and eating are a great challenge for individuals diagnosed with ET. STIL B.V. works on the development of an alternative solution to dampen a forearm tremor. STIL B.V. is developing a product that dampens the tremor by actively counteracting the movement of its users. With this, the product offers tremor patients a solution that does not involve surgery or use of medication. The project focuses on finding improvements for the STIL product by developing a solution for recently diagnosed ET patients with an invalidating forearm tremor. The final goal was to create a product that would improve the life quality of its users, by giving individuals with ET back control over their arms. ET patients often mentioned that it is difficult to be in a group or participate in a social activity. Awkward situations occur frequently, making them socially shy. The objective was to help patients regain social confidence by making use of the product. The final product proposal exists of two parts, a brace and an active dampening element (Exshell). The brace is used to connect the Exshell to the arm. The Exshell contains an active dampening element to stabilize the arm. At the start of this project, the development of the brace, the part that has contact with the skin, was not yet started. A simple elastic band combined with a coarse vibration measurement principle was used for the prototypes. An efficient attachment method to the users arm and a connection to the Exshell have been designed, made and tested. Additionally a set of different brace sizes has been developed to create a comfortable design for an as large as possible target group. To stimulate the use of the product, a brace has been designed that is as comfortable as possible. This has been done by making an optimized ergonomic design for ET patients. The brace can be worn all day by the user and when needed the Exshell can be slid over the wrist and actively counteract forearm tremors. An ergonomic test on healthy individuals has been conducted in order to discover the fit of the different developed brace sizes. The used scaling method for different sizes proved to be effective and by offering five different sizes a comfortable fit can be offered to almost everyone. The usability and functionality of the brace design has been validated during a patient test. The test showed that the brace is easy to use for tremor patients. The final design result presents a proposal of how the future product of STIL BV. might look like. The results from the analysis and validation phase have been combined and a future vision of the products embodiment is presented.

The aim of this project was to build a pleasant customer experience of personalizing, virtual fitting and ordering made-to-measure knitwear, so as to improve their satisfaction on fit as well as reduce waste in the fashion industry. The project started with a deep dive into the design context. Relevant knowledge from academic and industry was learned, together with the technology learning on 3D virtual fitting.The research findings revealed several problems on customers’ side: the lack of sensory inputs (visual and tactile) for evaluating apparel fit in online environment; the perceived complexity and uncertainty of making choices on personalized garments; the gap between one's fit requirements (depending on body sizes and personal fit preference) and actual garment sizes. The research findings also confirmed the perceived usefulness of 3D virtual fitting as a promising solution for online shopping. By using the software CLO3D, the visualization of knitwear is achievable, as well as the simulation of how the knitwear fits to different human body models. After the analysis stage, the focus of the project was transferred to how to connect the research findings to the design. An explicit and specific design statement was established, “To design a website that enables customers to customize and order knitwear made to their measurements, in all possible looks, sizes and fits. Include the use of 3D virtual fitting in the website to boost customer confidence in evaluating clothing fit online and shopping enjoyment. In the end deliver the real garment that achieves customer satisfaction”. The design goal, along with a website framework and a list of design requirements, gave a clear guide where the design should go. During the design stage, several iteration cycles were conducted to evaluate the design effectiveness of each part of the website, so as to quickly make design decisions and refine the concept in an early design phase. The final concept was built based on both the design requirements and new inputs from design process. In the last stage an evaluation study was carried out. A user test was done with thirteen participants using the website prototype to finish an order, and a comparison between physical try-on and virtual fitting was done with two of them. From the study results it could be evidenced that the website is able to support people to finish the online process of customizing made-to-measure knitwear, and for the majority the function of virtual fitting achieves its intended effects of enhancing customer confidence and shopping enjoyment. In the end, a review of the concept showed the validity and limitations of this project, some recommendations were discussed as well.

This research project is a collaboration between TUDelft, UPPS Fieldlab, and Made4eyes, a company that produces made-to-fit eyewear. In order to design a frame correctly, it is essential having a 3D head scan upon which the frame can be molded. The temple tips are crucial components that contribute to the frame's comfort and stability. Therefore it is fundamental to identify the curvature of the head behind the ear to model the temple tips accordingly. This area resulted difficult to 3D scan due to its position, the projected shadow of the ear, the limitations of the technology currently in use (occipital sensor scanner II), and the occasional involuntary movements of the subjects during the scan. Several methods have been tested to retrieve the posterior auricular area's curvature, including 3D scanning (using Artec Eva lite, Artec Spider, and 3Shape's Intraoral scanner Mark II), taking silicone molds, and combining both methods. The 3D scan results were either not accurate enough or presented problems during the elaboration phase (misalignment between the surfaces). The area corresponding to the attachment between the ear and the skull was not captured by any of the scanners. It was concluded that the most effective way to retrieve data would be by creating a mold with an embedded reference system that could later be 3D scanned. The developed solution is "flex" an adjustable frame that functions as a measuring tool due to the flexibility of its temple tips. The adjustability features (360° hinge and extendable temple tips) make this tool adaptable to a diverse user group. Once the temple tips curvature mold has been taken, the frame can be removed, and 3D scanned. The information retrieved is necessary to design comfortable and functional temples.

Patients suffering from diseases affecting verbal communication can make use of assistive devices to improve communication. Some severely disabled patients can only produce yes-or-no responses to communicate. These responses can be created through a physical switch, eye blink, or a 'mental' click created by brain activity. The yes-or-no responses can be used to communicate by making multiple selections between two groups of letters. Through deduction paradigms the target letter can be determined. Current assistive devices use a Row Column or Huffman paradigm to communicate. Communication rates achieved with these paradigms are slow compared to regular conversation rates and to assistive devices using eye-tracking. Furthermore, these deduction paradigms have only been tested in assistive devices with no or little noise. Noise affects the yes-or-no responses and leads to the selection of incorrect letters. There are assistive devices that suffer from high noise levels which affect communication rates. This work evaluates four communication paradigms for a range of noise conditions to improve communication rates. Row Column, Huffman, and two novel paradigms are evaluated. The two novel paradigms, based on Variable-Length Error-Correcting code and Weighted Huffman encoding, are designed for environments with noise. Evaluation of these paradigms is done through simulation and human experiments. A mathematical model is developed for simulation, and an emulator emulating an assistive device is used for human experiments. Spelling speed and cognitive effort are used as performance measures. The simulations were shown to be useful as a tool for predicting the relative performance of the paradigms in real use situations. Results from the simulation and experiments found that the effect of noise is paradigm dependent and should be taken into consideration. A novel paradigm was shown to be optimal for selective noise conditions. Row Column scanning scored the best on cognitive effort, while Huffman encoding resulted in the fastest typing speed in almost all noise conditions. Through emulation and simulation, Huffman encoding is validated as the optimal paradigm to increase communication rates. The mathematical model set a basis on which more research into optimal communication paradigms for discrete control assistive devices can be conducted.