Who are we?
I head up a small, reputable product design company in Monmouth, UK, which has always sought out useful niche products, mostly in Healthcare. You can checkout our main activities and some of our innovative products
at the dedicated websites at the bottom of this page, but basically I'm
saying that we know how to design and make stuff well. (See 'E2L Limited' below)
Dementia
One particular area of concern is dementia. Partly because its on the increase as we are all living longer (but don't forget young people get it too); partly because helping people stay at home as long as possible is so much more beneficial to their quality-of-life.
Needs and Benefits
We became aware of an extensive research project undertaken by the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering (now called 'Designability') which evaluated the concept of a simple-to-use music player, and we decided to take on the design and development costs and turn it into a viable product under licence. They used the prototype featured in the video for these trials.
Essentially there are great benefits through providing people with dementia with music they enjoy. Verbal communication is often difficult due to short term memory loss and intellectual effort, but improving the quality of life at home, and avoiding institutional structures, is greatly enhanced by providing music from earlier years. The problem being that many with dementia find the controls difficult to remember or manipulate.
Consequently we've built a SIMPLE MUSIC PLAYER that addresses these issues.
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Supporting this project will contribute to many people being able to have a better quality of life during the earlier stages of their illness, and enhance their lives if they are in sheltered or permanently staffed accommodation.
Funding Need
We've already funded most of the project as we've undertaken all the initial design and validation over the past
year, and now need a final push to fund the tooling and working captial for our first production
batch.
Why we need the cash & what you get in returnWe have great experience of taking ideas through to production and know our costs are accurate. (The funding we've specified accounts for half the total tooling - we've managed to find the rest ourselves). All the internal electronics is already designed, as is the new enclosures. Tooling, and initial production run, will take some 12 weeks from the raising of this final tranche of money, so we expect to be shipping product in March 2014.
We've designed the final music player to look like a classic old style radio, and it will be available in three different colours. It can be used all around the world, and we will supply the necessary mains plus to suit your country. It is moulded plastic in a variety of finishes so that it is both reminiscent of 'what radios look like', and is easily cleanable.
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Relatives, friends or carers can download there own music via a bluetooth link from any convenient device (such as a tablet or PC). The volume can be changed by informed users by touch switches on the base of the Music Player, but not easily, so as to prevent unintentional changes by accident.
As this project has a large element of philanthropism from all parties we decided to present a number of options, but essentially you or someone will get a SIMPLE MUSIC PLAYER product out of it.
The options are:
- SIMPLE MUSIC PLAYER - Burr Walnut Effect
- SIMPLE MUSIC PLAYER - Red
- SIMPLE MUSIC PLAYER - Green
- Contribution to SIMPLE MUSIC PLAYER - every time we get 10 philanthropic donations we will donate a unit to a suitable care home (we're open to suggestions - maybe a group could get together to raise funds for one).
- Finally, for those who think its beneficial to society, then all contributions are welcome with a profound 'thank you' for supporting our intentions and the eventual recipients.
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Research EvidenceThe initial product need has been throughly tested by the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering (BIME), with whom we have several product licence contracts. Their initial summary document to ourselves states:
" Much of the focus of research into dementia care has been
about safety and reducing risk ... However, an area which has often
been neglected is the quality of life of people with dementia. A European
project in which BIME were a partner addressed this by working with people with
dementia and their carers to identify and prioritise recreational activities
which they enjoyed doing but found participation difficult. The research showed
that people wanted to listen to music but were unable to use conventional tape,
CD and MP3 players because they were too complicated to operate. Through a process of user-led design, we developed a simple-to-use music player, based on a number of key principles.
Through working with people with dementia it was found that:
- the most
intuitive method of switching the device on was to lift a lid
- it was
important that the music started immediately
- the user
could change the track by pressing a large button under the lid
- using
glowing lights on the front of the player, users were reminded and
encouraged to use the player more often.
Although seemingly simple findings, these principles
resulted in a music player which could be enjoyed by people with memory loss
and cognitive impairment."
E2L Limited
We're a small company and have been running for 15 years. We have a particularly strong track record of
original thinking and collaboration with the health industry. We have
been recognised with several awards for innovation and collaboration, and are one of five Welsh companies to be 'Ambassadors for Innovation'. Our main company website is at www.E2L.uk.com
Help Wanted ..... please!
If you feel unable to contribute financially but believe this product is beneficial to the dementia community could you please be so kind as to spread the news of this project through whatever channels you may have.
Please also use Indiegogo share tools to spread awareness.
Thank you for reading
Lyndon Owen, Managing Director, E2L Limited, UKWebsites to show you what we can do: