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The Permobil SmartDrive: A Power Assist for Wheelchairs
A user reveals where design improvement is needed
This SmartDrive is by Permobil, a company that makes mobility solutions for those with disabilities. It's a wheelchair add-on that provides a power assist, making it easier for users to open doors, deal with inclines, or simply travel further while reducing fatigue.
Users control the device by means of either a wired speed controller, or via smartwatch.
If using the latter option, users double-tap their hand against a surface—their knee, or the wheelchair itself—in order to start and stop. I was curious as to how well this would work, and you can see a demonstration in the user review below, where the reviewer runs down the good and the bad of the device:
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It seems the connectivity issues need to be addressed, which is a technical issue. On the physical design front, they could certainly use a better way to attach the device to the wheelchair; it looks incredibly frustrating.
The units retail for $229.
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Comments
It is difficult for me to understand how a community of professional designers cannot have some (any) ideas on how to improve this use case (not a single comment or suggestion so far):