CT2: Common Problems with Modern Technology

CT2: Common Problems with Modern Technology

1. Mobile phones

   • Constantly tilting neck down to screen
     • Postural correction
     • Keeping phone at eye-level
       • Arm brace?
     • Countering the effect
       • Stretches at the end of the day
   • Easy to lose/be stolen
     • An auxiliary to a phone that helps you keep track of it easier
   • Battery dying far too quickly

2. Domestic appliances

   • Lawn-mowing is time-consuming and laborious
     • Roomba for the garden?
   • Dealing with floods from a washing machine
     • Robot that can help clear a flooded room

3. Laptops and Computers

   • Overheating under relatively little workload in some cases
   • Noisy fans when running at high speeds
   • When typing for long periods, wrist can cramp
     • Wrist cushions
   • Bending forward to look at the screen can contribute to back pain

4. Social Media and the Internet

   • Addictive, cannot easily leave apps
     • A tactile alternative for time-wasting/ procrastination
       • Less strain on eyes
       • Important to stay connected with the world
   • Ads and malware
     • Issue to be solved with software

5. Educational Devices

   • Laptops e.g. Chromebooks are becoming more popular within schools as an alternative to paper and notebooks
     • Students missing the tactile learning of actually writing things down
       • If typing, information tends to be forgotten within 24 hours
   • A product that engages students with real-world applications of their learning
     • Perhaps using virtual reality?

6. Assistive Technology

   • Blind people find canes a hassle to carry around
   • Deaf people may experience buzzing/feedback from their hearing aids
   • Being in the dark for deaf people can severely limit their ability to sense the world around them, leaving them confused, disoriented and vulnerable

7. Recreational Technology

   • Virtual reality can leave people feeling motion sickness and disoriented
     • Also, headaches, dizziness, and eye-strain
     • Too heavy to wear, clunky and not portable.
   • TV and projectors
     • Watching TV can be an event or part of a ritual in someone's day
       • E.g. watching the news whilst eating dinner
       • Can you enhance this effect - bring a greater sense of community to watching TV?
     • A product that enhances the connected-ness of people and nostalgia when watching TV/ having a movie night