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D.J. van Eijk
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8 records found
1
Enhancing communication for people with voice disabilities
Design of a speech enhancement device that utilises existing components to improve communication for individuals with voice disabilities
This master’s thesis focuses on designing a speech enhancement device intended to improve face-to-face communication for individuals with voice disabilities. Conducted in collaboration with Whispp, a company specialising in assistive voice technology, the project builds upon Whispp’s AI-powered app that converts whispered or impaired speech into clear, natural-sounding speech. The goal is to create a microphone that connects to the app, enabling seamless real-time communication in various social settings.
Voice disorders affect millions of people worldwide, significantly impacting their personal and professional lives. Current assistive devices often lack comfort, discretion, and usability, leaving room for innovation. This project follows the Double Diamond design methodology, starting with user research to identify needs and challenges. Interviews and surveys revealed that users prefer lightweight, discreet, and hands-free devices that can adapt to different environments.
Four concepts were developed: an extendable necklace, an around-the-ear boom, a ring, and a voice nosepiece. Following an evaluation involving weighted objectives and user feedback, the around-the-ear boom design was chosen for further development due to its comfort, effectiveness and discreet design. The final design features an ear hook with a flexible hinge for size adjustment, a compact body to house the internal components and a microphone wire. The device connects wirelessly to a phone via a dongle, transmitting the user’s voice to the Whispp app for processing. Audio output options include phone speakers, a wireless speaker, or open-ear headphones. The estimated production cost of the complete set, including a carry case, microphone and open-ear headphones, is €75.61. The microphone alone costs €40.15, resulting in an anticipated retail price of approximately €200 for the full set and €100 for the microphone.
User testing confirmed the device’s comfort, usability, and functionality. This thesis illustrates how thoughtfully designed assistive devices can seamlessly support everyday communication and enhance quality of life for people with voice disorders. ...
Voice disorders affect millions of people worldwide, significantly impacting their personal and professional lives. Current assistive devices often lack comfort, discretion, and usability, leaving room for innovation. This project follows the Double Diamond design methodology, starting with user research to identify needs and challenges. Interviews and surveys revealed that users prefer lightweight, discreet, and hands-free devices that can adapt to different environments.
Four concepts were developed: an extendable necklace, an around-the-ear boom, a ring, and a voice nosepiece. Following an evaluation involving weighted objectives and user feedback, the around-the-ear boom design was chosen for further development due to its comfort, effectiveness and discreet design. The final design features an ear hook with a flexible hinge for size adjustment, a compact body to house the internal components and a microphone wire. The device connects wirelessly to a phone via a dongle, transmitting the user’s voice to the Whispp app for processing. Audio output options include phone speakers, a wireless speaker, or open-ear headphones. The estimated production cost of the complete set, including a carry case, microphone and open-ear headphones, is €75.61. The microphone alone costs €40.15, resulting in an anticipated retail price of approximately €200 for the full set and €100 for the microphone.
User testing confirmed the device’s comfort, usability, and functionality. This thesis illustrates how thoughtfully designed assistive devices can seamlessly support everyday communication and enhance quality of life for people with voice disorders. ...
This master’s thesis focuses on designing a speech enhancement device intended to improve face-to-face communication for individuals with voice disabilities. Conducted in collaboration with Whispp, a company specialising in assistive voice technology, the project builds upon Whispp’s AI-powered app that converts whispered or impaired speech into clear, natural-sounding speech. The goal is to create a microphone that connects to the app, enabling seamless real-time communication in various social settings.
Voice disorders affect millions of people worldwide, significantly impacting their personal and professional lives. Current assistive devices often lack comfort, discretion, and usability, leaving room for innovation. This project follows the Double Diamond design methodology, starting with user research to identify needs and challenges. Interviews and surveys revealed that users prefer lightweight, discreet, and hands-free devices that can adapt to different environments.
Four concepts were developed: an extendable necklace, an around-the-ear boom, a ring, and a voice nosepiece. Following an evaluation involving weighted objectives and user feedback, the around-the-ear boom design was chosen for further development due to its comfort, effectiveness and discreet design. The final design features an ear hook with a flexible hinge for size adjustment, a compact body to house the internal components and a microphone wire. The device connects wirelessly to a phone via a dongle, transmitting the user’s voice to the Whispp app for processing. Audio output options include phone speakers, a wireless speaker, or open-ear headphones. The estimated production cost of the complete set, including a carry case, microphone and open-ear headphones, is €75.61. The microphone alone costs €40.15, resulting in an anticipated retail price of approximately €200 for the full set and €100 for the microphone.
User testing confirmed the device’s comfort, usability, and functionality. This thesis illustrates how thoughtfully designed assistive devices can seamlessly support everyday communication and enhance quality of life for people with voice disorders.
Voice disorders affect millions of people worldwide, significantly impacting their personal and professional lives. Current assistive devices often lack comfort, discretion, and usability, leaving room for innovation. This project follows the Double Diamond design methodology, starting with user research to identify needs and challenges. Interviews and surveys revealed that users prefer lightweight, discreet, and hands-free devices that can adapt to different environments.
Four concepts were developed: an extendable necklace, an around-the-ear boom, a ring, and a voice nosepiece. Following an evaluation involving weighted objectives and user feedback, the around-the-ear boom design was chosen for further development due to its comfort, effectiveness and discreet design. The final design features an ear hook with a flexible hinge for size adjustment, a compact body to house the internal components and a microphone wire. The device connects wirelessly to a phone via a dongle, transmitting the user’s voice to the Whispp app for processing. Audio output options include phone speakers, a wireless speaker, or open-ear headphones. The estimated production cost of the complete set, including a carry case, microphone and open-ear headphones, is €75.61. The microphone alone costs €40.15, resulting in an anticipated retail price of approximately €200 for the full set and €100 for the microphone.
User testing confirmed the device’s comfort, usability, and functionality. This thesis illustrates how thoughtfully designed assistive devices can seamlessly support everyday communication and enhance quality of life for people with voice disorders.
Production Optimalisation
Optimising the assembly by standardisation for fully customisable wheelchairs
This master thesis was completed at the TU Delft in collaboration with Pezy Group for the company O4 Wheelchairs, with the goal of optimising the production and assembly of their wheelchairs, by standardising the wheelchair design.
In the field of fully customisable wheelchairs (ultra-personalised products), the conflicting interest of the need for customisability and standardisation to optimise production is prevalent. By standardisation of the wheelchair assembly, without compromising the needed customisability, the production time of O4 wheelchairs can be improved benefiting both the company and its stakeholders.
To achieve the goal of a shorter production time, the production at O4 Wheelchairs was analysed, and multiple opportunities were formulated. These opportunities were further elaborated by turning them into design questions, and their potential was assessed with brainstorming sessions and low-fidelity prototyping. From these opportunities, one direction for a concept was chosen to be fully developed in this project. In contrast, the others were formulated into a roadmap of specific steps for O4 to take to improve their production.
The chosen concept was further developed by prototyping and testing, ranging from cardboard and 3D printed models to fully laser-cut aluminium parts.
This led to a design proposal for a new fender assembly. This new fender assembly integrates the brake into the assembly and ensures exact fixation without the need for measuring. It is usable in all wheelchair configurations and with the three sold wheel sizes.
Testing the new fender assembly with assembly workers at O4 Wheelchairs resulted in an estimated time of 16 minutes, compared to the 37 minutes it takes to assemble the old fender assembly.
The improvement of 44% in time, a cost decrease of roughly €30 and the design being less error-sensitive due to the straightforward way of fixation, all add to the value brought to O4, with the design proposal.
This project provides multiple starting points for O4 Wheelchairs to further improve their production and product line. The design proposal also promises a substantial improvement to their current fender assembly.
...
This master thesis was completed at the TU Delft in collaboration with Pezy Group for the company O4 Wheelchairs, with the goal of optimising the production and assembly of their wheelchairs, by standardising the wheelchair design.
In the field of fully customisable wheelchairs (ultra-personalised products), the conflicting interest of the need for customisability and standardisation to optimise production is prevalent. By standardisation of the wheelchair assembly, without compromising the needed customisability, the production time of O4 wheelchairs can be improved benefiting both the company and its stakeholders.
To achieve the goal of a shorter production time, the production at O4 Wheelchairs was analysed, and multiple opportunities were formulated. These opportunities were further elaborated by turning them into design questions, and their potential was assessed with brainstorming sessions and low-fidelity prototyping. From these opportunities, one direction for a concept was chosen to be fully developed in this project. In contrast, the others were formulated into a roadmap of specific steps for O4 to take to improve their production.
The chosen concept was further developed by prototyping and testing, ranging from cardboard and 3D printed models to fully laser-cut aluminium parts.
This led to a design proposal for a new fender assembly. This new fender assembly integrates the brake into the assembly and ensures exact fixation without the need for measuring. It is usable in all wheelchair configurations and with the three sold wheel sizes.
Testing the new fender assembly with assembly workers at O4 Wheelchairs resulted in an estimated time of 16 minutes, compared to the 37 minutes it takes to assemble the old fender assembly.
The improvement of 44% in time, a cost decrease of roughly €30 and the design being less error-sensitive due to the straightforward way of fixation, all add to the value brought to O4, with the design proposal.
This project provides multiple starting points for O4 Wheelchairs to further improve their production and product line. The design proposal also promises a substantial improvement to their current fender assembly.
A Novel Smart Wearable
For Parkinson’s Disease
In the dynamic realm of medical technology, innovation to improve the lives of those with chronic conditions like Parkinson's Disease (PD) is paramount. This graduation report represents the culmination of a project aiming to address prevalent symptoms in individuals with PD.
Client and Objective:
The project aims to develop a concept product for Dopple B.V., a Dutch tech company specializing in head-worn audio smart wearables, seeking to expand into the medical market. The focus is on utilizing their existing product line to create a solution.
Scope:
The project focuses on creating a smart wearable audio device equipped with modern technology to alleviate symptoms of PD, particularly "freeze of gait & festination."
Symptoms:
Freeze of gait (FoG) refers to a sudden inability to move forward despite intending to walk, significantly impacting mobility and increasing fall risk. Festination involves a rapid, short-stepped gait, leading to balance issues and difficulties in movement control.
User Testing:
Tests conducted with PD clients showed promising results in evaluating the effectiveness of feedback mechanisms.
Product Features:
The "Dopple Earbuds" utilize advanced technology such as smartphone integration, neural networks, and Bluetooth data transmission. Beyond addressing FoG and festination, they offer a range of functionalities including object detection, heart rhythm monitoring, fall detection, posture correction, and more.
Design:
The Dopple Earbuds are designed with considerations for aesthetics, ergonomics, and materials, tailored to the needs of elderly users. The involvement of neural networks necessitates careful management of memory, battery consumption, and data flow.
Collaboration:
The project involved collaboration with healthcare professionals, Dopple engineers, and coaching, aiming to pioneer novel solutions in medical technology beyond traditional pharmaceutical approaches.
In summary, this project represents a significant step forward in leveraging technology to improve the quality of life for individuals with PD, showcasing the potential of medical assistance technology in complementing existing treatments. ...
In the dynamic realm of medical technology, innovation to improve the lives of those with chronic conditions like Parkinson's Disease (PD) is paramount. This graduation report represents the culmination of a project aiming to address prevalent symptoms in individuals with PD.
Client and Objective:
The project aims to develop a concept product for Dopple B.V., a Dutch tech company specializing in head-worn audio smart wearables, seeking to expand into the medical market. The focus is on utilizing their existing product line to create a solution.
Scope:
The project focuses on creating a smart wearable audio device equipped with modern technology to alleviate symptoms of PD, particularly "freeze of gait & festination."
Symptoms:
Freeze of gait (FoG) refers to a sudden inability to move forward despite intending to walk, significantly impacting mobility and increasing fall risk. Festination involves a rapid, short-stepped gait, leading to balance issues and difficulties in movement control.
User Testing:
Tests conducted with PD clients showed promising results in evaluating the effectiveness of feedback mechanisms.
Product Features:
The "Dopple Earbuds" utilize advanced technology such as smartphone integration, neural networks, and Bluetooth data transmission. Beyond addressing FoG and festination, they offer a range of functionalities including object detection, heart rhythm monitoring, fall detection, posture correction, and more.
Design:
The Dopple Earbuds are designed with considerations for aesthetics, ergonomics, and materials, tailored to the needs of elderly users. The involvement of neural networks necessitates careful management of memory, battery consumption, and data flow.
Collaboration:
The project involved collaboration with healthcare professionals, Dopple engineers, and coaching, aiming to pioneer novel solutions in medical technology beyond traditional pharmaceutical approaches.
In summary, this project represents a significant step forward in leveraging technology to improve the quality of life for individuals with PD, showcasing the potential of medical assistance technology in complementing existing treatments.
Since everyone’s body, needs, and goals are unique, frequent and close interactions with unsuitable products can result in negative physical and mental experiences. Yet breast pumps are still mass-produced products, and finding the right product for themselves can be challenging for mothers. As a result, a new design strategy, product personalisation, is offered to address the problem of users’ particular demands not being satisfied.
This collaboration between Philips Experience Design and the NEXT UPPS project team explores the UPPS framework’s application possibilities in its MCC (Mother and Child Care) context. NEXT UPPS team, on the other hand, intends to complete different aspects of its design approach through the application of concepts to real-world case studies.
This graduation project aims to help mothers better engage in the co-creation process to obtain a more personalised breast pumping product that truly fits their needs. To design a co-creation experience that can motivate participation, research activities were carried out to understand mothers’ needs and concerns regarding breast pumping from multiple perspectives and to explore appropriate design opportunities across the whole breast pumping journey.
The research revealed that it could be challenging for inexperienced moms to articulate their needs to get personalised products. In addition, the mother’s high reliance on medical professionals in the early stages of childbirth shows that the co-creation of unfamiliar products is even more difficult. To overcome this problem, the goal of the design phase was to design a supportive and informative process that guides mothers to finish the task easily within co-creation. The design should provide an experience that mothers can feel secure, as easily facing unknown challenges with the support of medical professionals.
This project presented a product customisation webpage and a self-scanning mobile App to conquer the challenge. The product customisation webpage guides participants step-by-step through a question-and-answer interaction to customise breast pump products while allowing them to explore and understand their needs. The self-scanning mobile app guides women to easily and independently complete body measurement through clear and simple instructions, so as to obtain more personalised offers in product personalisation.It has been proven in user testing that the Q&A interaction can motivate users’ participation while stimulating them to reflect on their product needs. However, although the guidance of the body scan can help users complete body measurement quickly and effectively, users still have concerns about data sharing. ...
This collaboration between Philips Experience Design and the NEXT UPPS project team explores the UPPS framework’s application possibilities in its MCC (Mother and Child Care) context. NEXT UPPS team, on the other hand, intends to complete different aspects of its design approach through the application of concepts to real-world case studies.
This graduation project aims to help mothers better engage in the co-creation process to obtain a more personalised breast pumping product that truly fits their needs. To design a co-creation experience that can motivate participation, research activities were carried out to understand mothers’ needs and concerns regarding breast pumping from multiple perspectives and to explore appropriate design opportunities across the whole breast pumping journey.
The research revealed that it could be challenging for inexperienced moms to articulate their needs to get personalised products. In addition, the mother’s high reliance on medical professionals in the early stages of childbirth shows that the co-creation of unfamiliar products is even more difficult. To overcome this problem, the goal of the design phase was to design a supportive and informative process that guides mothers to finish the task easily within co-creation. The design should provide an experience that mothers can feel secure, as easily facing unknown challenges with the support of medical professionals.
This project presented a product customisation webpage and a self-scanning mobile App to conquer the challenge. The product customisation webpage guides participants step-by-step through a question-and-answer interaction to customise breast pump products while allowing them to explore and understand their needs. The self-scanning mobile app guides women to easily and independently complete body measurement through clear and simple instructions, so as to obtain more personalised offers in product personalisation.It has been proven in user testing that the Q&A interaction can motivate users’ participation while stimulating them to reflect on their product needs. However, although the guidance of the body scan can help users complete body measurement quickly and effectively, users still have concerns about data sharing. ...
Since everyone’s body, needs, and goals are unique, frequent and close interactions with unsuitable products can result in negative physical and mental experiences. Yet breast pumps are still mass-produced products, and finding the right product for themselves can be challenging for mothers. As a result, a new design strategy, product personalisation, is offered to address the problem of users’ particular demands not being satisfied.
This collaboration between Philips Experience Design and the NEXT UPPS project team explores the UPPS framework’s application possibilities in its MCC (Mother and Child Care) context. NEXT UPPS team, on the other hand, intends to complete different aspects of its design approach through the application of concepts to real-world case studies.
This graduation project aims to help mothers better engage in the co-creation process to obtain a more personalised breast pumping product that truly fits their needs. To design a co-creation experience that can motivate participation, research activities were carried out to understand mothers’ needs and concerns regarding breast pumping from multiple perspectives and to explore appropriate design opportunities across the whole breast pumping journey.
The research revealed that it could be challenging for inexperienced moms to articulate their needs to get personalised products. In addition, the mother’s high reliance on medical professionals in the early stages of childbirth shows that the co-creation of unfamiliar products is even more difficult. To overcome this problem, the goal of the design phase was to design a supportive and informative process that guides mothers to finish the task easily within co-creation. The design should provide an experience that mothers can feel secure, as easily facing unknown challenges with the support of medical professionals.
This project presented a product customisation webpage and a self-scanning mobile App to conquer the challenge. The product customisation webpage guides participants step-by-step through a question-and-answer interaction to customise breast pump products while allowing them to explore and understand their needs. The self-scanning mobile app guides women to easily and independently complete body measurement through clear and simple instructions, so as to obtain more personalised offers in product personalisation.It has been proven in user testing that the Q&A interaction can motivate users’ participation while stimulating them to reflect on their product needs. However, although the guidance of the body scan can help users complete body measurement quickly and effectively, users still have concerns about data sharing.
This collaboration between Philips Experience Design and the NEXT UPPS project team explores the UPPS framework’s application possibilities in its MCC (Mother and Child Care) context. NEXT UPPS team, on the other hand, intends to complete different aspects of its design approach through the application of concepts to real-world case studies.
This graduation project aims to help mothers better engage in the co-creation process to obtain a more personalised breast pumping product that truly fits their needs. To design a co-creation experience that can motivate participation, research activities were carried out to understand mothers’ needs and concerns regarding breast pumping from multiple perspectives and to explore appropriate design opportunities across the whole breast pumping journey.
The research revealed that it could be challenging for inexperienced moms to articulate their needs to get personalised products. In addition, the mother’s high reliance on medical professionals in the early stages of childbirth shows that the co-creation of unfamiliar products is even more difficult. To overcome this problem, the goal of the design phase was to design a supportive and informative process that guides mothers to finish the task easily within co-creation. The design should provide an experience that mothers can feel secure, as easily facing unknown challenges with the support of medical professionals.
This project presented a product customisation webpage and a self-scanning mobile App to conquer the challenge. The product customisation webpage guides participants step-by-step through a question-and-answer interaction to customise breast pump products while allowing them to explore and understand their needs. The self-scanning mobile app guides women to easily and independently complete body measurement through clear and simple instructions, so as to obtain more personalised offers in product personalisation.It has been proven in user testing that the Q&A interaction can motivate users’ participation while stimulating them to reflect on their product needs. However, although the guidance of the body scan can help users complete body measurement quickly and effectively, users still have concerns about data sharing.
During the redesign of the interior of the Flying-V, especially the Chaise Longue, it is investigated how Virtual Reality (VR) can be used within the design process as an evaluation tool. Can test subjects use VR to provide feedback on conceptual designs? And what are the pros and cons? While these questions are being explored, the results of the testing in VR will be used to redesign the Chaise Longue and combine it with results from other graduate students to create a total configuration of the Flying-V.
During the project, two tests have been done. The first test was to explore VR, and to learn about how to create a proper test for product evaluation in VR. This test has been done partly in Ras al-Khaimah (UAE) and in Delft (NL) with employees from KLM. The second test was to test a preliminary redesign of the Chaise Longue. The results of this test were used to create the redesign of the Chaise Longue. ...
During the project, two tests have been done. The first test was to explore VR, and to learn about how to create a proper test for product evaluation in VR. This test has been done partly in Ras al-Khaimah (UAE) and in Delft (NL) with employees from KLM. The second test was to test a preliminary redesign of the Chaise Longue. The results of this test were used to create the redesign of the Chaise Longue. ...
During the redesign of the interior of the Flying-V, especially the Chaise Longue, it is investigated how Virtual Reality (VR) can be used within the design process as an evaluation tool. Can test subjects use VR to provide feedback on conceptual designs? And what are the pros and cons? While these questions are being explored, the results of the testing in VR will be used to redesign the Chaise Longue and combine it with results from other graduate students to create a total configuration of the Flying-V.
During the project, two tests have been done. The first test was to explore VR, and to learn about how to create a proper test for product evaluation in VR. This test has been done partly in Ras al-Khaimah (UAE) and in Delft (NL) with employees from KLM. The second test was to test a preliminary redesign of the Chaise Longue. The results of this test were used to create the redesign of the Chaise Longue.
During the project, two tests have been done. The first test was to explore VR, and to learn about how to create a proper test for product evaluation in VR. This test has been done partly in Ras al-Khaimah (UAE) and in Delft (NL) with employees from KLM. The second test was to test a preliminary redesign of the Chaise Longue. The results of this test were used to create the redesign of the Chaise Longue.
Creating ocular prosthetics using parametric modelling
Developing an new workflow for the parametric 3D-modelling of ultra-personalized ocular prosthetics
In the Netherlands roughly 20.000 people wear an ocular prosthetic as a consequence of losing their eye due to an accident or disease. An ocular prosthetic is a type of facial prosthesis that replaces an absent natural eye. The main goal of an ocular prosthetic is to provide an aesthetic replacement of a real eye. It does not restore the ability to see. During surgery the eye is removed and a empty socket is left. An ocular prosthetic is custom made to fit that socket.
These prosthetic eyes are made by highly-skilled professionals who are called ocularists. They do this through a labour-intensive manual production process. This process consists of several steps such as obtaining the shape of the empty socket, consulting with patients and painting a realistic iris, sclera and pupil by hand. Traditionally these prosthetics are made with an acrylate called PMMA using a series of plaster moulds.
However the industry is moving towards digital production. The starting point for this thesis was an article written in 2021 by a research team from the Amsterdam Medical Centre consisting of Annabel L.W. Groot, Jelmer S. Remmers, and Dyonne T. Hartong. This article featured a proof-of-concept of a fully coloured 3D-printed ocular prosthetic. This showed that creating an realistic prosthetic using 3D-printing is possible. The next steps are integrating this knowledge into the daily work of an ocularist.
The goal of this thesis was to develop a new workflow for an ocularist in order to create an ocular prosthetic suited for 3D-printing by using computer aided design. To increase the efficiency of production and to help the ocularist with digitalization a custom tool was developed in the form of a parametric model. This parametric model is able to automatically generate 3D-geometry of an ocular prosthetic using 3D-scans of ocular impressions or digital reference models. By inputting manual measurements, photographs and parameters the ocularist is able to create eyes which offer a personalized fit for every patient. Five ocular prosthetics have been made using the new workflow and parametric model. These were then validated by comparing the results with prosthetics who are made using the same input but with the traditional method. The 3D-prints showed great promise for a new fully digital way of creating ocular prosthetics having low surface deviations with the original prosthetics .
The next steps are testing with real patients and further developing the parametric model into a dedicated software tool for ocularists.
Most ocularists seem to be far away from producing fully 3D-printed prosthetics for customers but this thesis is a good first step in the digitalization of the ocularist practice.
...
These prosthetic eyes are made by highly-skilled professionals who are called ocularists. They do this through a labour-intensive manual production process. This process consists of several steps such as obtaining the shape of the empty socket, consulting with patients and painting a realistic iris, sclera and pupil by hand. Traditionally these prosthetics are made with an acrylate called PMMA using a series of plaster moulds.
However the industry is moving towards digital production. The starting point for this thesis was an article written in 2021 by a research team from the Amsterdam Medical Centre consisting of Annabel L.W. Groot, Jelmer S. Remmers, and Dyonne T. Hartong. This article featured a proof-of-concept of a fully coloured 3D-printed ocular prosthetic. This showed that creating an realistic prosthetic using 3D-printing is possible. The next steps are integrating this knowledge into the daily work of an ocularist.
The goal of this thesis was to develop a new workflow for an ocularist in order to create an ocular prosthetic suited for 3D-printing by using computer aided design. To increase the efficiency of production and to help the ocularist with digitalization a custom tool was developed in the form of a parametric model. This parametric model is able to automatically generate 3D-geometry of an ocular prosthetic using 3D-scans of ocular impressions or digital reference models. By inputting manual measurements, photographs and parameters the ocularist is able to create eyes which offer a personalized fit for every patient. Five ocular prosthetics have been made using the new workflow and parametric model. These were then validated by comparing the results with prosthetics who are made using the same input but with the traditional method. The 3D-prints showed great promise for a new fully digital way of creating ocular prosthetics having low surface deviations with the original prosthetics .
The next steps are testing with real patients and further developing the parametric model into a dedicated software tool for ocularists.
Most ocularists seem to be far away from producing fully 3D-printed prosthetics for customers but this thesis is a good first step in the digitalization of the ocularist practice.
...
In the Netherlands roughly 20.000 people wear an ocular prosthetic as a consequence of losing their eye due to an accident or disease. An ocular prosthetic is a type of facial prosthesis that replaces an absent natural eye. The main goal of an ocular prosthetic is to provide an aesthetic replacement of a real eye. It does not restore the ability to see. During surgery the eye is removed and a empty socket is left. An ocular prosthetic is custom made to fit that socket.
These prosthetic eyes are made by highly-skilled professionals who are called ocularists. They do this through a labour-intensive manual production process. This process consists of several steps such as obtaining the shape of the empty socket, consulting with patients and painting a realistic iris, sclera and pupil by hand. Traditionally these prosthetics are made with an acrylate called PMMA using a series of plaster moulds.
However the industry is moving towards digital production. The starting point for this thesis was an article written in 2021 by a research team from the Amsterdam Medical Centre consisting of Annabel L.W. Groot, Jelmer S. Remmers, and Dyonne T. Hartong. This article featured a proof-of-concept of a fully coloured 3D-printed ocular prosthetic. This showed that creating an realistic prosthetic using 3D-printing is possible. The next steps are integrating this knowledge into the daily work of an ocularist.
The goal of this thesis was to develop a new workflow for an ocularist in order to create an ocular prosthetic suited for 3D-printing by using computer aided design. To increase the efficiency of production and to help the ocularist with digitalization a custom tool was developed in the form of a parametric model. This parametric model is able to automatically generate 3D-geometry of an ocular prosthetic using 3D-scans of ocular impressions or digital reference models. By inputting manual measurements, photographs and parameters the ocularist is able to create eyes which offer a personalized fit for every patient. Five ocular prosthetics have been made using the new workflow and parametric model. These were then validated by comparing the results with prosthetics who are made using the same input but with the traditional method. The 3D-prints showed great promise for a new fully digital way of creating ocular prosthetics having low surface deviations with the original prosthetics .
The next steps are testing with real patients and further developing the parametric model into a dedicated software tool for ocularists.
Most ocularists seem to be far away from producing fully 3D-printed prosthetics for customers but this thesis is a good first step in the digitalization of the ocularist practice.
These prosthetic eyes are made by highly-skilled professionals who are called ocularists. They do this through a labour-intensive manual production process. This process consists of several steps such as obtaining the shape of the empty socket, consulting with patients and painting a realistic iris, sclera and pupil by hand. Traditionally these prosthetics are made with an acrylate called PMMA using a series of plaster moulds.
However the industry is moving towards digital production. The starting point for this thesis was an article written in 2021 by a research team from the Amsterdam Medical Centre consisting of Annabel L.W. Groot, Jelmer S. Remmers, and Dyonne T. Hartong. This article featured a proof-of-concept of a fully coloured 3D-printed ocular prosthetic. This showed that creating an realistic prosthetic using 3D-printing is possible. The next steps are integrating this knowledge into the daily work of an ocularist.
The goal of this thesis was to develop a new workflow for an ocularist in order to create an ocular prosthetic suited for 3D-printing by using computer aided design. To increase the efficiency of production and to help the ocularist with digitalization a custom tool was developed in the form of a parametric model. This parametric model is able to automatically generate 3D-geometry of an ocular prosthetic using 3D-scans of ocular impressions or digital reference models. By inputting manual measurements, photographs and parameters the ocularist is able to create eyes which offer a personalized fit for every patient. Five ocular prosthetics have been made using the new workflow and parametric model. These were then validated by comparing the results with prosthetics who are made using the same input but with the traditional method. The 3D-prints showed great promise for a new fully digital way of creating ocular prosthetics having low surface deviations with the original prosthetics .
The next steps are testing with real patients and further developing the parametric model into a dedicated software tool for ocularists.
Most ocularists seem to be far away from producing fully 3D-printed prosthetics for customers but this thesis is a good first step in the digitalization of the ocularist practice.