LU humanitarian inventions win prestigious international design awards

The Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative (LEI) has received two Gold awards at the MUSE Design Award in the category Conceptual Design for CREW Wheelchair Control System and 12° Mask respectively.

 

(From left) Brian Michael Katona, Prof Albert Ko and Ian Wong from the Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative receive MUSE Design for their CREW Wheelchair Control System and 12° Mask.

 

The international MUSE Design Awards is for creative professionals with an inspirational concept, idea or design. The CREW Wheelchair Control System and 12° Mask are original humanitarian technologies designed by LEI to meet the needs of elderly caregivers and hearing-impaired people.

 

The CREW Wheelchair Control System can intelligently predict a carer’s intentions so as to better control a wheelchair, improving the safety of both wheelchair users and carers. It can be plugged into the wheelchair push handles to detect and intelligently predict the magnitude and direction of force, both forward and backward, making them easier to push or stop. It is especially helpful on a slope, as the system provides additional power when moving up a ramp or down a hill with a regenerative braking system converting kinetic energy to recharge the batteries. The system can also automatically travel in a straight line, which helps carers and minimise the risk of injury.

 

The research team has already filed patent applications in Hong Kong and Mainland for this ground-breaking system.

 

Wheel chair
 

Wheel Chair

 

The 12° Mask is a transparent air-filtration mask that meets ASTM Level 3 standard. The anti-reflective mask helps hearing-impaired people to read lips clearly. Inspired by stealth fighter jets, the transparent face mask is combined with the use of polygon design, flat surfaces and sharp edges to make light refract, so as to reduce unwanted glare significantly. 

 

Mask

 

“Innovation is one of our core values at LEI. These prestigious MUSE awards not only show that our humanitarian innovations are well-receive and recognised by international experts, but also a great encouragement to our team. We will continue to create more products to solve humanitarian challenges for the betterment of humankind,” said Prof Albert Ko, Director of LEI.