Team Carp Mark Page Andrew Osborne Jasmine Gandhi March 24, 2009

Carp Members Mark Page- A junior at Littleton High School. Mark is a determined hard worker. Andrew Osborne- Currently a junior at Andover High School, Andrew is a hard worker and enjoys the challenge Jasmine Gandhi- Currently a junior at Chelmsford High, Jasmine is an organized and focused student who adds a creative asset to the team. She looks forward to helping others in any way possible and is ecstatic to begin the fabrication process here.

Our Client, Mr. A Mr. and Mrs. M, Mr. A’s parents,shared with us that while he is able to recognize objects, he sometimes has a difficult time verbalizing what he has to say. For the most part, he uses placards with pictures of common activities on them. When he wants to do something he shows his parents a placard for the activity or thing he wants to do or get. His mother says these placards are very useful when he gets frustrated or simply cannot recall the word for an object. She says he suffers from a barrier between his audio and visual connection and therefore, cannot communicate to his full ability; usually these words are things he has heard before, but tends to forget them easily. In addition, they encouraged us to incorporate an aid to help Mr. A gain a concept of time, if at all possible. They would appreciate the “jump start.”

Constraints and Requirements Safety Should be safe enough for a young child to use (no sharp parts or unkempt wires) It must be inexpensive to create (cap of $150) It has to be well put together and attractive There has to be an incentive for him to use it Device should be simple to understand and operate It should incorporate things or pictures he enjoys It must be effective in helping him understand the correlation between time and activities and activity and words. Durable Effective Cannot be extremely large (likes keeping all personal objects in a toy trunk) Power source/battery needs to be rechargeable and should have a reasonable lifespan Time constraint (needs to be done mid-late March)

Project Proposal Statement of Need: Our client needs to overcome visual-audio barriers and gain time concepts.

Teacher Input Talked to Mr. A’s school teacher, Linsdey, who suggested that she wasn’t too worried about her student learning how to tell time, but more so on the fact that he still has trouble forming comprehendible, proper sentences.

Items already on the market

Brain Storm Idea one The device will be built out of a briefcase The device will say words when different buttons are pushed Each button will have plastic sleeve for a picture to go with each button

Plan #1 This activity was designed to adhere to Mr.’s parents in their request for a way to incorporate time concepts for our client By cutting out a square from the bottom of the clock we can add in a rotating activity wheel, that changes Mr. A’s job to-do according to the time. This will help with his need for a structured schedule and will hopefully demolish the visual audio barrier he has. For example, the clock on the right shows Mr. A that it is time for bed P.M.

Ozzie’s Back-up Plan

Our Solution Our solution is a device which will help our clients communication skills The device will be built out of a briefcase wich has buttons on the outside Each button will correspond to a different word or activity and will be accompanied by pictures When pushed the device will pronounce the word or activity The messages will be able to be re-recorded and the pictures will be interchangeable

Parts List Electrical 6-8 ISD1110 voice recording chips (5.95e) 1-2 small speaker(s) 1 small microphone Other circuit parts 1 briefcase (used if possible) 6-8 pinball buttons Recording switches (Estimated cost=$70-$90) Diagrams (see handouts)

Pros and cons Pros Portable Circuitry can be built inside Safe Will fix the lack of visual-audio Cost falls within range Will look AWESOME Cons May be difficult to built Some parts may be tough to get Does not include time concepts