On December 18th, Terabridges visited Arc Human Services Smart Home, which was an eventful opportunity, as Terabridges pursues their passion of Assistive Technology.
Initially, we introduced a little about our team and robot, but primarily explained our assistive technology journey. After this, we were shown around the smart home, which is a regular house that has many off-the-shelf technologies. These devices make independent living more accessible to individuals with intellectual disabilities. The tour of the smart home was especially interesting to see the function of these different tools like Amazon Alexas, medication reminder devices, smart wall buttons, and even lights triggered by weighted sensors in mattresses, which optimized the quality of living inside this house. It was nice to see similarities in our assistive devices as well, often with large buttons that grant easier access. Our team had many questions throughout this experience.
After the walkthrough of the house, we explained our next endeavors in assistive technology, and were happy to hear the willingness of Arc Human Services to support us. Terabridges also obtained very valuable advice in general about assistive technology, which we were happy to hear. Because we have a lot of experience in 3D-printing our switches, we were willing to help Arc Human Services, who wants to explore this more. We also requested Arc Human Services to visit our community assistive toy build day.
Overall, this industry visit was extremely beneficial, as Terabridges saw more ways assistive technology can be implemented, and we gained great insight and advice about how we can continue to approach our future assistive technology endeavors. Our connection with Arc Human Services is extremely valuable, as the more support we receive for our passion, assistive technology, the more excited we, as a team, will pursue it!