TOM:berkeley, 2017

HouseAUTo

Enabletech makeathon, 2017

Owen, a Berkeley-based filmmaker and self-taught engineer, can only interface with technology when using his wheelchair. He uses a customized joystick attached to his wheelchair and controlled by his chin. Because Owen spends a lot of time at home outside of his wheelchair, this quickly becomes limiting. But Owen, who developed his engineering prowess by developing solutions to challenges he found in his own life, doesn’t like to think small – in addition to a non-wheelchair-exclusive technology interface, Owen is also looking for ways to automate devices around his house through an app. To tackle Owen’s multi-faceted challenge, the HouseAUTO team – Team Hada – split into multiple sub-teams throughout the weekend, working on developing everything from a mechanical arm to attach to Owen’s wheelchair, to connecting his joystick to a tablet interface, to setting up a server to control all of the peripheral devices, to hacking into Owen’s door to better connect it to his new home automation system.

My role for this 48-hour makeathon was to rapidly construct two adjustable arms: one capable of holding a joystick; one capable of holding a tablet. I was also charged with developing the adapters to hold both of these items. All group members shared in ideation, implementation, and documentation, but special mention goes to Owen Kent for leading our team to a remarkable set of innovations.

Download the final presentation slide deck here