Watch Out for the Blind Spots: Design a Vision Testing Device
After meeting the client, students are ready to design a device to test the peripheral vision of non-verbal children.
In this service-learning engineering project, students follow the steps of the engineering design process to design a vision testing device. More specifically, they design a prototype machine that can be used to test the peripheral vision of partially-blind, pre-verbal children. Students learn about the basics of vision and vision loss. They also learn how a peripheral vision tester for adults works (by testing the static peripheral vision in the four quadrants of the visual field with four controllable lights in specific locations). Then they modify the idea of the adult peripheral vision tester to make it usable for testing young children. The class designs and builds one complete prototype, working in sub-groups of four or five students each to build sub-components of the project design.
Biomedical engineers and doctors work closely together to design machinery for medical care workers to use to diagnose and treat patients. Doctors give engineers device requirements and the engineers work under a set of constraints to design equipment to meet those requirements. The resulting biomedical products may take the form of devices, implants, machines, medicines and technologies (diagnostic equipment, pacemakers, artificial limbs, surgical techniques, hearing aids, laser eye surgery, ultrasound, amniocentesis, in-vitro fertilization, pain medicine, etc.). As part of their design work, engineers create prototypes and make technical presentations, to learn, test and communicate their work.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain different steps of the engineering design process.
- Explain how engineers design and create devices for the benefit of people.
- Explain how peripheral vision is tested.