{"id":47696,"date":"2023-09-16T14:33:44","date_gmt":"2023-09-16T10:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/?p=47696"},"modified":"2023-09-16T15:09:11","modified_gmt":"2023-09-16T11:09:11","slug":"super-smart-shopping-cart-for-james-dyson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/super-smart-shopping-cart-for-james-dyson\/","title":{"rendered":"Super-smart shopping cart for James Dyson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThe problems of the future will be solved by today\u2019s bright young engineers and scientists. But they need inspiration and encouragement.\u201d That\u2019s the ethos behind the James Dyson Award; and whatever your views about Mr Dyson himself, the award has certainly produced some excellent ideas \u2013 innovative solutions to genuine problems. There\u2019s no clickbait here.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Award competition is open to current students and recent graduates, and submissions are reviewed by a panel of independent experts (including but not limited to Dyson\u2019s people). Each winner takes home a prize fund and will get the chance to earn media exposure that should help to kick-start their career and commercialise their invention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first round of the award is national, and some 30 National Winners have just been announced<\/a> from a total of nearly 2,000 entries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UAE is one of the countries that have signed up, and the UAE winner is a Heriot-Watt University team with SMEFA<\/a>, \u201cShopping Made Effortless For All\u201d. Basically it\u2019s a smart shopping cart aimed primarily at the physically disabled \u2013 it can attach to a wheelchair \u2013 that uses a built-in scanner controlled by a low-cost processor (Arduino Uno). Information about a scanned product is displayed (price, calories, allergens) and a credit card used for payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other clever aspect of the design seems to us to be a load sensor linked to a spring-linkage mechanism \u2013 as the user adds or removes an item, the whole cart can move down or up respectively using. That means maximum leg room for a wheelchair user and effortless lifting of the basket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We don’t get to see the full spec, of course, but it would be interesting to understand the overall data requirements for the scan. There are a lot of products out there in multiple stores, not all of which maintain dietary details and product descriptions in the same database formats; being able to access dietary information is very useful, but unless there’s a link to some kind of global product database the functionality might be limited to the basic barcode-type information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current design also looks a bit clunky, especially by comparison with some of the super-slick solutions on offer from other national winners. But that\u2019s recognised by the design team, and it is of course solvable, they say future development will focus on more automation, weight reduction, improved payment options, a stacking function, and more portability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The SMEFA team consists of Noel Binoy, Ashvin Vijish, Aditya Subin, Manush Dheen and Adhil Sidhik<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The UAE runners-up were HydroPurification from a Curtin University team, a portable four-layer greywater purification system; and FarmFlock, also by Heriot-Watt University, a swarm of mobile robots equipped with sensors for delivering data about the health of chicken flocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a good deal of variety on the list, with some alternative approaches to the same problem (cycle helmets, colostomy bags), several medical (prosthetics manufacturing, pulmonary rehabilitation, post-surgery chest brace), a couple aimed at potentially lifestyles (Alzheimer\u2019s, blindness, asthma, ADHD), and some that sound great but look difficult to get into production (hybrid retrofit for petrol engines, a hygroscopic water collection system). But they\u2019re all serious. Here are ten that caught our attention: <\/p>\n\n\n\n