Kyoto Inclusive Design Challenge 2009
30 July - 1 August 2009
Team 4
Team leader: Miles Pennington, RCA Innovation Design Engineering
Deputy: Professor Yasuyuki Hirai
Design partner: Junichi Yamashita
You've Got a Visitor is an innovative visitor identification system for the home and other environments.
Mr Yamashita is a freelance DJ living in Kyoto and an excellent musician who plays drums and harmonica. He is visually impaired, and uses a wheelchair for a condition that causes multiple fractures especially in his hands and legs.
Talking with and observing Junichi, the team members realised that his physical weakness places him in a vulnerable position. He lives alone and cannot check the identity of callers and is unable to distinguish who is calling.
A door is more than just an entrance for accessibility. It creates a psychological barrier between people since it is difficult to know who is on the other side. The existing monitoring system relying on recognition of the caller's voice and a small display does not help Junichi. The visitor may be not fully visible leading to uncertainty as to whether he should open the door or not.
The design proposal created by the team is called 'You've got a visitor' after the familiar 'You've got mail'. The team devised a visual and audio communication system to connect both sides of the door in similar way to receiving messages on the internet.
You've Got a Visitor notifies and connects both sides of the door in an intuitive way without the need to open the door. A full door size monitor on the internal side of the door displays an image of the visitor taken by a camera on the external side.
Frequent visitors are registered with a different sound that is matched to or chosen by the person. The sensor and sound system on both sides of the door creates a visual image accompanied by the short sound that identifies each individual caller when he or she arrives. In this way Junichi can distinguish between familiar visitors and strangers.
