Yaohan Gu

Introducing AEGIS:

The concentration of ambient air pollutants worldwide exceeds the safe range of acute and chronic health problems. Many fine harmful particles and viruses in the air around people are also easy to adhere to people's skin, clothes and hair. At present, there is no such product that can protect people from air pollution at all times. The insight we have is that human beings are the transmission tools of air pollution, spreading pollutants everywhere and bring them back home, which endangers the health of their families, especially vulnerable groups. Therefore, in addition to improving the air quality around people, it is also necessary to find a solution to prevent contaminants from adhering to the surface.

Aegis is a Smart Textile‐Integrated negative ion technology for repelling pollutants and air purification. The product made by Aegis fabric can constantly emit negative ions into the air, which can help reduce harmful chemicals or particles that adhere to the surface. It provides a new way of air purification and protects people from invisible danger.

In collaboration with:

Yunjing Zhao

OPPORTUNITY:

Clothes are called the second skin of human beings. Nowadays, we are surrounded by textiles, which is next to our skin and act as protectors. Our concept combines negative ion technology to create smart fabrics with the function of repelling pollutants, which help reduce chemical residuals left on people's clothes.

TECHNICAL STUDY:

After studying various technologies for air purification, we chose the negative ion technology for our project. By disassembling the negative ion purifier samples provided by CoClean, we can understand the internal structure of negative ions to find technological breakthroughs. 

PROCESS:

This project integrates science and design and should be explored in the design process with scientific verification methods. The entire design process combines double diamond design methods and functional textiles and fabric testing methods, including inspiration, conception, realization and testing. Continuously check the relevance and rigour to maintain feasibility and desirability. We collaborate with professionals and companies worldwide to get technical support and valuable feedback.

PROTOTYPING:

We experimented on various conductive materials with different texture types, testing the number of negative ions they released. Based on the principle that negative ions are emitted from the tip, I use carbon fibre materials combined with negative ion technology to make an Intelligent textile. I also use Rhino 3D software to 3D print the battery module for the final prototype. The material was made using the traditional carpet weaving technique to make the entire fabric formed from many yarns with the ends facing upwards. 

Can we reimagine urine drainage bag, change people's stereotypes about patients with urine bags and Bring the healthy and active lifestyle back to users?

An all in one catheter management system designed for Active users from any age range who have suffered from urinary incontinence, Bladder disease, etc. This project was done during the medical design course that I took during the exchange at Pratt Institute in New York.

What is Urine Drainage Bag?

Urine drainage bags collect urine. The bag will attach to a catheter (tube) that is inside your bladder. 

INSIGHTS:

Many patients who need to carry urine bags for a lifetime told me that they felt shamed wearing them, making them reluctant to go out. While, In many cases, the patient's physical condition became worse because of the decrease in exercise.

Analysis of competing products found that the size of leg bags on the market exceeded the actual needs of patients. Many design details of the urine bag are unreasonable:

1) The thin rope of the urine bag Impede blood circulation.

2) In a hot and humid environment, the air-impermeable material direct contacts with the skin can cause skin allergies

3) The urine bag continuously rubs on the leg, causing skin abrasions.

..., etc

“Life Secrets”, an interactive digital book that gives children the opportunity to explore sexuality. The stories in the book not only teach them to respect and protect their own sexual identity but also touch on important issues such as sexual diversity and family structures. We want to empower our little readers to be aware of who they are, how they were born, and why differences aren’t necessarily bad.

After reading the whole book, children could acquire age-appropriate information about reproduction, birth, genders, self-protection, and different types of family structures they may meet in kindergarten. It aims to educate and encourage children to treat someone in an equal way if he or she is different from their own, and also, make children could understand and respect other’s diversity and preference.

IDEATION & METHODOLOGY:

I brainstormed and adopted a human-centred approach in the design process, we focused on both parents’ experience of teaching their children with the book and the children’s experience interacting with the book. Reading through sex education books in different countries provide the correct information content for Life Secret e-books and interactive animations. We designed the book to make it universally effective. With the cartoon-style motion graphics, the fun interactions, the intuitive narrations, and the meaningful storyline, the book minimizes parents’ concern in the appropriateness of teaching children about sexuality and let children enjoy the process of learning it.

PROTOTYPING:

I used Illustrator to draw the required elements and then used Pubcoder to make an interactive prototype of the app game. During the production process, tests were conducted with the children of KMD kindergarten and iterated continuously. In addition, I consulted KMD's PhD students who specialize in AR games and worked out the code needed for the AR interactive part of Chapter 3.

WORKSHOPS & USER TESTING:

We hold workshops with kids and teachers in kindergartens in Japan and China. We are trying to hold as many workshops as we can, in order to get more valuable user feedback from kids, parents and teachers.