In 2016,while visiting family we went to lunch with a friend who uses a cane. Finding a place for the cane was a problem and it fell to the floor more than once. My mother said “Ian you can fix this!”. I was certain that somebody had already done something to address this problem and an online search revealed three products. Of the three devices the one that seemed most promising, wasn’t available in Canada.
Since I had recently built a 3D printer I decided to make a similar version for our friend. A few hours on the computer designing and printing I had something to give them and it did improve the situation. I printed a few more and gave them to a couple of other cane users and I began to get some feedback – there were some problems, it wasn’t perfect.
As a fun exercise I went back to the computer and tried to improve the design. With the 3D printer at my disposal I could make a change and print and test it in a short time. This produced a lot of prototypes, I had box full of them, but it became clear that the main shortcoming of the device was that it was not secure. It was possible for it to be knocked off the cane and lost.
When I was thinking about this problem one day I had an “aha” moment and several hours later I had proved the new concept. Many more prototypes later and with my trusty testers having approved the new design. The Cane Minder was a successful Kickstarter campaign ended in December of 2017. Cane minders are now in stock and ready for sale here.
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