The problem that my sock dryer aims to solve, is that the homeless, in the rain, wear wet socks the whole day which makes them very prone to foot borne illnesses. My dryer aims to solve this issue. It utilizes centrifugal force and a powerful gear system to fling water out of the socks and leave them barely damp.

    I believe that this important to the homeless and to society. To prevent the homeless from getting sick is huge for them, since they don't have allot of money they may have to give up some of their daily food income to pay for the treatment. Even worse, they may not get treated and the illness and foot growth can get worse, even to the point where their legs need to get amputated. The sight of a man/women with a horrible foot growth or even no feet, can be unpleasing for the rest of society which is where the sock dryer can help.

What is the problem you are trying to solve? 

How did you decide to work on this problem?

Why do you think problem and your solution are important?

What is your solution?

I am trying to fix the privacy in the showers of the pine street inn. Their showers have no privacy to it. Also the homeless people are kicked out at 7:00 am, and it might rain  and homeless people could get infected.

When I was at the pine street inn I saw that there was no privacy in the showers. I imagined if I were lived in this homeless shelter I would want some privacy.

I think the problem and the solution are important because if your in the rain without any protection you could get infected. but if you did have this protection there is a less likely chance that you will get infected.

My solution is to make a shower curtain and a raincoat put together. that way you wouldn't have to carry 2 seperate things home with you.

In the Easing the Street studio, we all had the same goal: to design and create a device that would make being homeless either in or outside of the shelter easier. We visited a homeless shelter in the beginning of the first two weeks, and talked to several people who work closely with homeless people one of whom was also formerly homeless. Homeless shelters are incredibly helpful and important, but upon visiting it was made clear that homeless people lose much of their autonomy there. There were extremely strict restrictions on when people were allowed to come and leave, how much they could eat, what they could do while at the shelter, etc.

Our team came together and knew that we wanted to focus on giving homeless people their autonomy back. After a few days of brainstorming, diagramming, mocking-up, and discussion, we decided to work on a sensory replacement/modification helmet that would give the user the ability to replace 3/5 of their senses (sight, hearing, and scent). Our final project accomplished this through using a viewing port with adjustable filters, a small tray placed directly underneath the viewing port that could insert any scent, and a 3-piece plastic ear cavern that replicates the sound of the ocean.

This was a thought-provoking project not only in that it straddled the line between conceptual and practical, but there were deeper layers behind our intent as well as our final product. Yes, our entire aim was to give homeless people autonomy through giving them control of their immediate surroundings. But we still end up being the ones dictating what their choices were.