The purpose of this project was to experiment with low-fidelity rapid prototyping, which involves the use of cheap materials to clearly convey in-progress ideas to other people (team members, teachers, prospective investors, etc.) Our specific objective was to design a method of numbing/cooling that can be attached to syringes in order to facilitate and streamline the shot-taking process. This need exists because current numbing/cooling methods come in separate packaging and require additional steps.
My process began with sketching, criteria listing, and overall brainstorming. I listed various methods and ideas for cooling or numbing, and explored the various placed in which things could be attached to a syringe.
Then I got to work. The first thing I did was look closely at the cart to see my prototyping options. From here, I visually brainstormed: how can I combine the forms, shapes, and mechanical properties of these low-fi materials to convey my ideas?
Process Photos:
My prototypes were divided into two groups:
1) Components that incorporate cooling methods
2) Attachment methods that, when combined with components, form a complete prototype.
a) These attachment methods have “black boxes” on them that serve as a visual “blank space” in which the cooling components can be attached.
Component 1: Prickable Blister Pack – Benzocaine
This idea was inspired by traveling toothpaste containers. Inside their caps, they have a spike that you can use to open the toothpaste tube. This idea works similarly – the inside of the purple bead hypothetically has a spike that, when pressed against the plastic, pokes it open and releases the benzocaine. The numbing agent escapes through the bead and is applied on the patient’s skin. This process combines opening and application into one movement, streamlining the numbing procedures.
Component 2: Battery-based active Cooling with aluminum heat sink
The orange foam represents a small, single-use battery. The white K’nex gear represents an aluminum heat sink that is pressed agains the patient’s skin to facilitate cooling. This design takes advantage of the thermal properties of aluminum and pairs it up with active cooling to create an effective cooling method.
Component 3: Moldable cooling dough
This idea stems directly from playing around with play dough – a product of visual brainstorming. The yellow and pink doughs represent materials that, when pressed together and mixed, react endothermically and product cooling effects. The mixed material is then molded tightly onto the spot that needs a shot, maximizing the surface area & contact patch of the cooling mechanism. The advantage of this design is that it is infinitely moldable to adapt to every shape of the body.
Component 4: Endothermic mixing reaction blister pack with aluminum heat sink
This cooling component idea is inspired by the ENGI team’s solution. It uses two endothermically reacting reagents packaged separately. When the seal between the two reagents is broken, they cool the system. The container is glued to an aluminum heat sink that facilitates cooling and heat exchange between the patient and device.
Component 5: Evaporative cooling + compressed air
In this photo, the sand represents a quickly evaporating liquid such as ethanol, compressed at a high pressure in a small tube. When the black seal is removed, the ethanol is misted at a high speed onto the patient’s skin, cooling both through wind chill and evaporation. This process could also facilitate the process because it could double as a sanitation method – alcohol is often used to prep medical procedures.
Component 6: Micro-needle Lidocaine Patch
Component 7: Lidocaine micro-needle application wheel
This design was inspired by nicotine patches, and any other medications applied via microneedles. The medication, lidocaine, is colored red on the patch. This patch would be pressed against the patient’s skin and the numbing agent would be administered subdermally.
Component 8: Lidocaine mini-needle wheel
Video in-action:
On the tips of the k’nex block are microneedles with small amounts of lidocaine in them. To apply, the doctor rolls the wheel across the patient’s skin, and the numbing agent is injected painlessly into the bloodstream.
Attachment Method 1:
This attachment method is perhaps the most intuitive – a clip that can be unclipped from the side of a syringe. The black rectangle represents a blank spot in which various “components” can be attached to create a fully functional device. I wanted to leave these options open-ended in the interest of keeping the largest number of options available.
Attachment Method 2:
This attachment method is a velcro patch on top of the syringe end fitting. Once the doctor receives the syringe, they simply un-velcro the cooling method to use it.
Attachment Method 3:
This method attaches onto the syringe via friction. A flexible spiraled wire wraps around the syringe and the cooling method, keeping it secure.
Attachment Method 4:
This method uses elastics to hold cooling methods in place.
Attachment Method 5:
What if we just modified the packaging for syringes to include cooling methods conveniently located next to the syringes? Here, I cut foam to fit the syringe, and placed a black rectangle to represent the cooling method.
Summary:
Here are the different cooling methods laid out for scale!
Failures:
For many cases, I thought I could just use superglue. But gluing plastics to each other via superglue generally takes a long time, and the attachment can come undone while the glue is drying.
From this failure, I learned that hot glue works best for rapid low-fi prototyping!
