The James Dyson Award is an award set up to encourage and inspire new designs and technologies which can change the world. Looking over the batch of ideas from the 2014 entry we found a few which are particularly interesting and relevant to bespoken. The designs we chose all placed in the award’s Top 20 list, although none of them made national or international winner.

The Moveker C1

This design comes from Sebastion Llao Dias, a Spanish engineering student who has transformed the traditional wheelchair by applying hand-operated gears to create a chair which is both easier and safer to use. The hand-operated system allows people who lack the upper body strength or coordination to use a standard wheelchair to be able to travel more effectively, while reducing the risk of stress related injuries to the shoulders and back.

The Luke Stairwalker

Star Wars puns aside this design seems to offer a simple and effective solution to the problem many people with physical impairments have climbing the stairs. Designed by German Product Design student, Alexander Abele, the Luke Stairwalker is a specialised hand rail with a tailored grip to allow the elderly or people with disabilities to be able to climb stairs without the use of a stair lift. The design provides a cheaper and simpler alternative to chair lift installations, as well as being suitable for smaller, narrower staircases.

Bruise

Bruise (which also happens to be an entry in the Blackwood Student Design Awards) is an injury detection suit designed for disabled athletes who lack sensation, allowing them to detect injuries to their body. The suit was designed by Dan Garrett, an Engineering and Innovation Design student at the Royal College of Art. It uses disposable film inserts which irreversibly change colour when applied to excessive stress such as an impact, allowing the individual to immediately see where a potential injury has occurred after training or competition and seek treatment.

Other designs from the James Dyson Award which may be worth checking out are the Chirpee, a device for people with hearing impairments which converts speech into text and Limbitless, a prototype prosthetic arm for children who do not have either a wrist or elbow joint and are unable to use traditional prosthetics.

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