Problem Statements: 

Increase the independent motion of the blind toward navigating the world in the same way as any typically able individual by giving them a continuous sense of direction.

Create a means of providing a sense of cardinal direction for an individual. This must operate for those who are blind and those both blind and deaf.

Application of the Statement/Restatement Technique, Root Cause Analysis, Etc: 

Statement - Create a means of providing a sense of cardinal direction for an individual. This must operate for those who are blind and those both blind and deaf.

Restatement 1 - Create a way for blind and deaf people to move about the world around them easily.

Restatement 2 - Create a cost-effective and scalable way to give a sense of cardinal direction to blind and deaf people.

Restatement 3 - Introduce or create a way for blind and deaf people to have a sense of what direction they’re going without depending on either what one sees or what one hears.

Restatement 4 - Find a way to use some of the other senses of the human body to guide one’s sense of direction (such as the sense of touch) 

Revision method: If there were to be an expiring patent on a current solution, or competition were to increase to call for the revision method, then our primary solution to this problem would be a wrist watch form-factor device using the sense of touch via vibrations to indicate spatial orientation of the user. However, there are some limitations to this design to be pointed out that can allow for revision to better suit customer needs. Ex: discrete or continuous vibrations? If vibrations were used to indicate cardinal directions for example, then how often should they be pinged when a change in direction occurs? Does this even help navigate physical obstructions in your surroundings? Either discrete or continuous vibrations could work, but this design does not help you navigate around physical obstacles, so some sort of sonar navigation system may be necessary to help aid individuals, which could also affect the form-factor of the solution.

Kepner Tregoe Situation Analysis: 

A problem in which you want to provide a sense of direction for people who are blind and/or deaf can be analyzed via KT situation analysis. 

Trend and Timing- There have been plenty of inventions within recent history to aid those who are blind and deaf. Hearing aids for those with hearing impairments, a walking cane/guiding animal for those who are visually impaired, as well as more niche technological devices as well. However, each one poses their own challenges. Canes require you to constantly maintain physical interaction with your surroundings to properly navigate your environment, guiding animals pose a similar problem/dependency. These modern practices can show us that we would want a solution that provides more independence for the user, one where if they have the right solution, will not have to rely on anyone to navigate their daily life and perform basic tasks. 

Impact- (customer, info source, who is affected, etc)

Over 7%(just under 2 million) of US adults have noticeable difficulty completing daily tasks due to visual/auditory disabilities(Source). Majority of the time, the cause of the problem is due to genetics and out of anyone’s control, thus problem prevention and PPA analysis is not worth considering(gene editing maybe?). Therefore the best way to maximize impact is to return as much functionality to the affected as possible to restore daily task capabilities. 

Kepner Tregoe Problem Analysis: 

The visually and auditorily impaired make up 2 million US adults as previously stated, and most have external dependencies such as an animal or another human to aid them in their day-to-day activities. Most of these affected adults have correctable vision for most of their life, but develop issues at later ages from illnesses such as cataracts. For those that have genetic outliers at birth, there is very little control to be had and thus the most productive course of action is to focus on those who develop visual and auditory impairments at a later age (65 years+) will target the most impact. Of course, being blind or deaf directly implies that solutions cannot have visual/auditory outputs that are necessary for the intended user to interact with or observe at all. To gain more information on who is affected by the problem, communicating with the deaf and blind themselves would provide invaluable information and insights into the problem. It is important to distinguish that although the blind/deaf individuals are the customers and are generally elderly, many will have friends/family around them that can provide more information and insight, and are also affected by the customer’s problem. Aside from a solution that attempts to circumnavigate the effects of sight and hearing loss, preventative measures can also be taken as a solution which prevent the elderly from developing the root cause illness that lead to the impairment.