Pop-Sci Core77 Design Challenge/ Description HUMAN POWERED 10/20/03

Description of Design

My concept was inspired by "Lifting." Lifting is a soccer drill that professional soccer players use to practice their ball handling skill. Basically, it is for keeping the ball from touching the ground using different parts of the body to tap it and maintain it in the air. By tapping the ball with different amount of forces and angles, the ball can go to different directions and height. Therefore, I applied this similar theory to the lighting device. The target users of this product are night time joggers. It is dangerous for them to jog in a dark environment, and they need light to see where they are going. When streetlights are not good enough, they need to have a lighting device that they can easily carry around. This product is prefect for them because of its lightweight and adjustability. For the structure, there are two layers of structure of the lighting device. For the inside layer, the material is transparent silicon and have phosphorescent liquid filled inside. It is completely flexible. For the outside layer, the material is translucent silicon. It is a little bit thicker and less flexible than the inside layer. They both can be configured in various ways. To activate the lighting device, the user has to squeeze it. By squeezing it, the phosphorescent liquid will be pressed out through the holes that are located on the outside layer. Since the intensity of light is determined on the amount of the phosphorescent liquid being pressed out, the harder the user squeezes it, the brighter it will be. By releasing the pressure, the lighting device will go back to its original shape. Because of the flexibility of the material, it does not require much strength.