WEBVTT 00:00:00.656 --> 00:00:03.897 Living with a physical disability isn't easy 00:00:03.897 --> 00:00:06.120 anywhere in the world, 00:00:06.120 --> 00:00:08.949 but if you live in a country like the United States, 00:00:08.949 --> 00:00:12.042 there's certain appurtenances available to you that do make life easier. 00:00:12.042 --> 00:00:14.715 So if you're in a building, you can take an elevator. 00:00:14.715 --> 00:00:16.995 If you're crossing the street, you have sidewalk cutouts. 00:00:16.995 --> 00:00:19.159 And if you have to travel some distance farther 00:00:19.159 --> 00:00:22.118 than you can do under your own power, there's accessible vehicles, 00:00:22.118 --> 00:00:24.286 and if you can't afford one of those, 00:00:24.286 --> 00:00:26.659 there's accessible public transportation. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:26.659 --> 00:00:29.140 But in the developing world, things are quite different. 00:00:29.140 --> 00:00:32.569 There's 40 million people who need a wheelchair but don't have one, 00:00:32.569 --> 00:00:35.924 and the majority of these people live in rural areas, 00:00:35.924 --> 00:00:39.804 where the only connections to community, to employment, to education, 00:00:39.809 --> 00:00:42.292 are by traveling long distances on rough terrain 00:00:42.292 --> 00:00:45.029 often under their own power. 00:00:45.029 --> 00:00:47.141 And the devices usually available to these people 00:00:47.141 --> 00:00:49.845 are not made for that context, break down quickly, 00:00:49.845 --> 00:00:52.155 and are hard to repair. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:52.155 --> 00:00:56.875 I started looking at wheelchairs in developing countries in 2005, 00:00:56.875 --> 00:01:00.691 when I spent the summer assessing the state of technology in Tanzania, 00:01:00.691 --> 00:01:04.504 and I talked to wheelchair users, wheelchair manufacturers, disability groups, 00:01:04.504 --> 00:01:06.361 and what stood out to me 00:01:06.361 --> 00:01:08.813 is that there wasn't a device available 00:01:08.813 --> 00:01:11.069 that was designed for rural areas, that could go fast 00:01:11.069 --> 00:01:13.977 and efficiently on many types of terrain. 00:01:13.977 --> 00:01:15.760 So being a mechanical engineer, 00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:18.354 being at MIT and having lots of resources available to me, 00:01:18.354 --> 00:01:20.860 I thought I'd try to do something about it. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:20.860 --> 00:01:23.813 Now when you're talking about trying to travel 00:01:23.813 --> 00:01:26.019 long distances on rough terrain, 00:01:26.019 --> 00:01:27.752 I immediately thought of a mountain bike, 00:01:27.752 --> 00:01:29.165 and a mountain bike's good at doing this 00:01:29.165 --> 00:01:31.004 because it has a gear train, 00:01:31.004 --> 00:01:33.752 and you can shift to a low gear if you have to climb a hill 00:01:33.752 --> 00:01:35.464 or go through mud or sand 00:01:35.464 --> 00:01:37.578 and you get a lot of torque but a low speed. 00:01:37.578 --> 00:01:39.693 And if you want to go faster, say on pavement, 00:01:39.693 --> 00:01:40.992 you can shift to a high gear, 00:01:40.992 --> 00:01:42.779 and you get less torque, but higher speeds. 00:01:42.779 --> 00:01:44.751 So the logical evolution here 00:01:44.751 --> 00:01:47.538 is to just make a wheelchair with mountain bike components, 00:01:47.538 --> 00:01:48.810 which many people have done. 00:01:48.810 --> 00:01:52.125 But these are two products available in the U.S. that 00:01:52.125 --> 00:01:54.731 would be difficult to transfer into developing countries 00:01:54.731 --> 00:01:57.366 because they're much, much too expensive. 00:01:57.366 --> 00:01:59.642 And the context I'm talking about is where 00:01:59.642 --> 00:02:03.638 you need to have a product that is less than 200 dollars. 00:02:03.638 --> 00:02:06.069 And this ideal product would also be able to go 00:02:06.069 --> 00:02:10.073 about five kilometers a day so you could get to your job, get to school, 00:02:10.073 --> 00:02:11.925 and do it on many, many different types of terrain. 00:02:11.925 --> 00:02:14.817 But when you get home or want to go indoors at your work, 00:02:14.817 --> 00:02:19.238 it's got to be small enough and maneuverable enough to use inside. 00:02:19.238 --> 00:02:22.599 And furthermore, if you want it to last a long time out in rural areas, 00:02:22.599 --> 00:02:26.705 it has to be repairable using the local tools, materials and knowledge 00:02:26.705 --> 00:02:29.521 in those contexts. 00:02:29.521 --> 00:02:32.461 So the real crux of the problem here is, 00:02:32.461 --> 00:02:35.609 how do you make a system that's a simple device 00:02:35.609 --> 00:02:37.740 but gives you a large mechanical advantage? 00:02:37.740 --> 00:02:39.927 How do you make a mountain bike for your arms 00:02:39.927 --> 00:02:42.522 that doesn't have the mountain bike cost and complexity? NOTE Paragraph 00:02:42.522 --> 00:02:45.019 So as is the case with simple solutions, 00:02:45.019 --> 00:02:48.501 oftentimes the answer is right in front of your face, and for us it was levers. 00:02:48.501 --> 00:02:53.439 We use levers all the time, in tools, doorknobs, bicycle parts. 00:02:53.439 --> 00:02:56.176 And that moment of inspiration, that key invention moment, 00:02:56.176 --> 00:02:58.545 was when I was sitting in front of my design notebook 00:02:58.545 --> 00:03:01.545 and I started thinking about somebody grabbing a lever, 00:03:01.545 --> 00:03:03.658 and if they grab near the end of the lever, 00:03:03.658 --> 00:03:05.291 they can get an effectively long lever 00:03:05.291 --> 00:03:08.116 and produce a lot of torque as they push back and forth, 00:03:08.116 --> 00:03:10.537 and effectively get a low gear. 00:03:10.537 --> 00:03:12.944 And as they slide their hand down the lever, 00:03:12.944 --> 00:03:15.780 they can push with a smaller effective lever length, 00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:17.525 but push through a bigger angle every stroke, 00:03:17.525 --> 00:03:21.559 which makes a faster rotational speed, and gives you an effective high gear. 00:03:21.559 --> 00:03:23.311 So what's exciting about this system 00:03:23.311 --> 00:03:25.914 is that it's really, really mechanically simple, 00:03:25.914 --> 00:03:27.483 and you could make it using technology 00:03:27.483 --> 00:03:29.730 that's been around for hundreds of years. 00:03:29.730 --> 00:03:31.915 So seeing this in practice, 00:03:31.915 --> 00:03:33.468 this is the Leveraged Freedom Chair that, 00:03:33.468 --> 00:03:35.632 after a few years of development, 00:03:35.632 --> 00:03:37.569 we're now going into production with, 00:03:37.569 --> 00:03:39.442 and this is a full-time wheelchair user -- 00:03:39.442 --> 00:03:41.134 he's paralyzed -- in Guatemala, 00:03:41.134 --> 00:03:45.133 and you see he's able to traverse pretty rough terrain. 00:03:45.133 --> 00:03:49.656 Again, the key innovation of this technology is that when he wants to go fast, 00:03:49.664 --> 00:03:53.719 he just grabs the levers near the pivots and goes through a big angle every stroke, 00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:56.644 and as the going gets tougher, he just slides his hands up the levers, 00:03:56.644 --> 00:03:58.830 creates more torque, and kind of bench-presses his way 00:03:58.830 --> 00:04:01.426 out of trouble through the rough terrain. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:01.426 --> 00:04:04.438 Now the big, important point here is that 00:04:04.438 --> 00:04:07.151 the person is the complex machine in this system. 00:04:07.151 --> 00:04:10.497 It's the person that's sliding his hands up and down the levers, 00:04:10.497 --> 00:04:13.219 so the mechanism itself can be very simple 00:04:13.219 --> 00:04:16.282 and composed of bicycle parts you can get anywhere in the world. 00:04:16.282 --> 00:04:17.882 Because those bicycle parts 00:04:17.882 --> 00:04:20.388 are so ubiquitously available, they're super-cheap. 00:04:20.388 --> 00:04:22.567 They're made by the gazillions in China and India, 00:04:22.567 --> 00:04:24.423 and we can source them anywhere in the world, 00:04:24.423 --> 00:04:26.856 build the chair anywhere, and most importantly repair it, 00:04:26.856 --> 00:04:29.255 even out in a village with a local bicycle mechanic 00:04:29.255 --> 00:04:33.970 who has local tools, knowledge and parts available. 00:04:33.970 --> 00:04:36.647 Now, when you want to use the LFC indoors, 00:04:36.647 --> 00:04:40.167 all you have to do is pull the levers out of the drivetrain, 00:04:40.167 --> 00:04:43.444 stow them in the frame, and it converts into a normal wheelchair 00:04:43.444 --> 00:04:45.959 that you can use just like any other normal wheelchair, 00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:48.105 and we sized it like a normal wheelchair, 00:04:48.105 --> 00:04:52.240 so it's narrow enough to fit through a standard doorway, 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:55.759 it's low enough to fit under a table, 00:04:55.759 --> 00:04:59.752 and it's small and maneuverable enough to fit in a bathroom 00:04:59.752 --> 00:05:02.491 and this is important so the user can get up close to a toilet, 00:05:02.491 --> 00:05:04.480 and be able to transfer off 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:10.071 just like he could in a normal wheelchair. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:10.071 --> 00:05:13.163 Now, there's three important points that I want to stress 00:05:13.163 --> 00:05:16.795 that I think really hit home in this project. 00:05:16.795 --> 00:05:19.999 The first is that this product works well because 00:05:19.999 --> 00:05:22.030 we were effectively able to combine 00:05:22.030 --> 00:05:26.584 rigorous engineering science and analysis with user-centered design 00:05:26.584 --> 00:05:29.961 focused on the social and usage and economic factors 00:05:29.961 --> 00:05:32.498 important to wheelchair users in the developing countries. 00:05:32.498 --> 00:05:34.986 So I'm an academic at MIT, and I'm a mechanical engineer, 00:05:34.986 --> 00:05:38.283 so I can do things like look at the type of terrain you want to travel on, 00:05:38.283 --> 00:05:41.182 and figure out how much resistance it should impose, 00:05:41.182 --> 00:05:44.190 look at the parts we have available and mix and match them 00:05:44.190 --> 00:05:46.835 to figure out what sort of gear trains we can use, 00:05:46.835 --> 00:05:49.937 and then look at the power and force you can get out of your upper body 00:05:49.944 --> 00:05:51.907 to analyze how fast you should be able to go in this chair 00:05:51.907 --> 00:05:54.278 as you put your arms up and down the levers. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:54.278 --> 00:05:57.937 So as a wet-behind-the-ears student, excited, 00:05:57.937 --> 00:06:00.062 our team made a prototype, 00:06:00.062 --> 00:06:04.937 brought that prototype to Tanzania, Kenya and Vietnam in 2008, 00:06:04.937 --> 00:06:07.071 and found it was terrible 00:06:07.071 --> 00:06:09.508 because we didn't get enough input from users. 00:06:09.508 --> 00:06:12.674 So because we tested it with wheelchair users, 00:06:12.674 --> 00:06:15.180 with wheelchair manufacturers, we got that feedback from them, 00:06:15.180 --> 00:06:18.634 not just articulating their problems, but articulating their solutions, 00:06:18.634 --> 00:06:22.112 and worked together to go back to the drawing board and make a new design, 00:06:22.112 --> 00:06:24.332 which we brought back to East Africa in '09 00:06:24.332 --> 00:06:27.177 that worked a lot better than a normal wheelchair on rough terrain, 00:06:27.177 --> 00:06:29.762 but it still didn't work well indoors because it was too big, 00:06:29.762 --> 00:06:32.057 it was heavy, it was hard to move around, 00:06:32.057 --> 00:06:35.611 so again with that user feedback, we went back to the drawing board, 00:06:35.611 --> 00:06:37.926 came up with a better design, 20 pounds lighter, 00:06:37.926 --> 00:06:41.488 as narrow as a regular wheelchair, tested that in a field trial in Guatemala, 00:06:41.488 --> 00:06:43.335 and that advanced the product to the point 00:06:43.335 --> 00:06:46.864 where we have now that it's going into production. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:46.864 --> 00:06:49.110 Now also being engineering scientists, 00:06:49.110 --> 00:06:52.836 we were able to quantify the performance benefits of the Leveraged Freedom Chair, 00:06:52.836 --> 00:06:55.632 so here are some shots of our trial in Guatemala 00:06:55.632 --> 00:06:59.174 where we tested the LFC on village terrain, 00:06:59.174 --> 00:07:01.002 and tested people's biomechanical outputs, 00:07:01.002 --> 00:07:03.385 their oxygen consumption, how fast they go, 00:07:03.385 --> 00:07:04.703 how much power they're putting out, 00:07:04.703 --> 00:07:07.975 both in their regular wheelchairs and using the LFC, 00:07:07.975 --> 00:07:10.287 and we found that the LFC is about 80 percent faster 00:07:10.287 --> 00:07:12.248 going on these terrains than a normal wheelchair. 00:07:12.248 --> 00:07:16.209 It's also about 40 percent more efficient than a regular wheelchair, 00:07:16.217 --> 00:07:18.760 and because of the mechanical advantage you get from the levers, 00:07:18.760 --> 00:07:20.649 you can produce 50 percent higher torque 00:07:20.649 --> 00:07:24.673 and really muscle your way through the really, really rough terrain. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:24.673 --> 00:07:28.109 Now the second lesson that we learned in this is that 00:07:28.109 --> 00:07:31.009 the constraints on this design really push the innovation, 00:07:31.009 --> 00:07:33.273 because we had to hit such a low price point, 00:07:33.273 --> 00:07:35.174 because we had to make a device that could travel 00:07:35.174 --> 00:07:38.402 on many, many types of terrain but still be usable indoors, 00:07:38.402 --> 00:07:40.693 and be simple enough to repair, 00:07:40.693 --> 00:07:43.060 we ended up with a fundamentally new product, 00:07:43.060 --> 00:07:45.176 a new product that is an innovation 00:07:45.176 --> 00:07:48.093 in a space that really hasn't changed in a hundred years. 00:07:48.093 --> 00:07:51.508 And these are all merits that are not just good in the developing world. 00:07:51.508 --> 00:07:53.985 Why not in countries like the U.S. too? 00:07:53.985 --> 00:07:55.721 So we teamed up with Continuum, 00:07:55.721 --> 00:07:57.365 a local product design firm here in Boston 00:07:57.365 --> 00:08:00.753 to make the high-end version, the developed world version, 00:08:00.753 --> 00:08:03.498 that we'll probably sell primarily in the U.S. and Europe, 00:08:03.498 --> 00:08:06.340 but to higher-income buyers. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:06.340 --> 00:08:09.326 And the final point I want to make is that I think 00:08:09.326 --> 00:08:12.152 this project worked well because we engaged 00:08:12.152 --> 00:08:16.763 all the stakeholders that buy into this project and are important to consider 00:08:16.763 --> 00:08:20.106 in bringing the technology from inception of an idea 00:08:20.106 --> 00:08:24.345 through innovation, validation, commercialization and dissemination, 00:08:24.345 --> 00:08:28.090 and that cycle has to start and end with end users. 00:08:28.090 --> 00:08:30.865 These are the people that define the requirements of the technology, 00:08:30.865 --> 00:08:33.204 and these are the people that have to give the thumbs-up at the end, 00:08:33.204 --> 00:08:35.713 and say, "Yeah, it actually works. It meets our needs." 00:08:35.713 --> 00:08:37.620 So people like me in the academic space, 00:08:37.620 --> 00:08:41.148 we can do things like innovate and analyze and test, 00:08:41.148 --> 00:08:44.244 create data and make bench-level prototypes, 00:08:44.244 --> 00:08:47.036 but how do you get that bench-level prototype to commercialization? 00:08:47.036 --> 00:08:50.823 So we need gap-fillers like Continuum that can work on commercializing, 00:08:50.823 --> 00:08:53.338 and we started a whole NGO to bring our chair to market -- 00:08:53.338 --> 00:08:55.774 Global Research Innovation Technology -- 00:08:55.774 --> 00:08:59.506 and then we also teamed up with a big manufacturer in India, Pinnacle Industries, 00:08:59.506 --> 00:09:01.721 that's tooled up now to make 500 chairs a month 00:09:01.721 --> 00:09:03.524 and will make the first batch of 200 next month, 00:09:03.524 --> 00:09:05.540 which will be delivered in India. 00:09:05.540 --> 00:09:08.244 And then finally, to get this out to the people in scale, 00:09:08.244 --> 00:09:10.556 we teamed up with the largest disability organization 00:09:10.556 --> 00:09:13.114 in the world, Jaipur Foot. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:13.114 --> 00:09:15.393 Now what's powerful about this model 00:09:15.393 --> 00:09:18.200 is when you bring together all these stakeholders 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:20.169 that represent each link in the chain 00:09:20.169 --> 00:09:22.710 from inception of an idea 00:09:22.710 --> 00:09:25.478 all the way to implementation in the field, 00:09:25.478 --> 00:09:27.029 that's where the magic happens. 00:09:27.029 --> 00:09:29.483 That's where you can take a guy like me, an academic, 00:09:29.483 --> 00:09:32.605 but analyze and test and create a new technology 00:09:32.605 --> 00:09:36.141 and quantitatively determine how much better the performance is. 00:09:36.141 --> 00:09:38.552 You can connect with stakeholders like the manufacturers 00:09:38.552 --> 00:09:40.436 and talk with them face-to-face and leverage their 00:09:40.436 --> 00:09:43.933 local knowledge of manufacturing practices and their clients 00:09:43.933 --> 00:09:46.542 and combine that knowledge with our engineering knowledge 00:09:46.542 --> 00:09:50.002 to create something greater than either of us could have done alone. 00:09:50.002 --> 00:09:52.533 And then you can also engage the end user 00:09:52.533 --> 00:09:55.243 in the design process, and not just ask him what he needs, 00:09:55.243 --> 00:09:58.268 but ask him how he thinks it can be achieved. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:58.268 --> 00:10:01.325 And this picture was taken in India in our last field trial, 00:10:01.325 --> 00:10:03.684 where we had a 90-percent adoption rate where people 00:10:03.684 --> 00:10:07.290 switched to using our Leveraged Freedom Chair over their normal wheelchair, 00:10:07.290 --> 00:10:10.393 and this picture specifically is of Ashok, 00:10:10.393 --> 00:10:13.425 and Ashok had a spinal injury when he fell out of a tree, 00:10:13.425 --> 00:10:16.267 and he had been working at a tailor, but once he was injured 00:10:16.267 --> 00:10:19.190 he wasn't able to transport himself from his house 00:10:19.190 --> 00:10:21.990 over a kilometer to his shop in his normal wheelchair. 00:10:21.990 --> 00:10:23.261 The road was too rough. 00:10:23.261 --> 00:10:26.182 But the day after he got an LFC, he hopped in it, 00:10:26.182 --> 00:10:28.266 rode that kilometer, opened up his shop 00:10:28.266 --> 00:10:30.982 and soon after landed a contract to make school uniforms 00:10:30.982 --> 00:10:33.804 and started making money, started providing for his family again. 00:10:33.804 --> 00:10:35.951 Ashok: You also encouraged me to work. 00:10:35.951 --> 00:10:38.675 I rested for a day at home. 00:10:38.675 --> 00:10:43.131 The next day I went to my shop. 00:10:43.131 --> 00:10:46.109 Now everything is back to normal. 00:10:46.109 --> 00:10:50.194 Amos Winter: And thank you very much for having me today. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:50.194 --> 99:59:59.999 (Applause)