Sometimes I hear of a problem and I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s easier for me to design a solution and then I can move on. It doesn’t have to be a perfect solution and I don’t have to make it. That is what happened when I heard about a person who needed a way to fill a cup without it overflowing or having to stick their finger in it (possibly burning their finger). What I should have done at this point was google all the key words (cup, filler, blind) and I would have gotten this result: https://www.google.com/search?q=cup%2C+filler%2C+blind&oq=cup%2C+filler%2C+blind&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.587j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
which of course has this product: https://www.amazon.com/Say-When-Liquid-Level-Indicator/dp/B000YL95BK
Which solves the problem really well in my opinion. Of course I don’t have a vision impairment and I haven’t spoken with the person making the request. But instead of taking this path, I chose to fire up Autodesk’s Fusion 360 which is my design tool of choice, start drawing sketches, extruding bodies, and rendering images to submit for feedback.
Here’s the solution I came up with. It’s based on the concept of filling up your gas tank, which is a great comparison to what I’m doing when I fill up my coffee cup. The user would pour into the funnel at the top and place their finger above the hole with the tube hanging down. The air would come through the hole until the level of the liquid had reached that length, this may be set at an appropriate fixed height or could even be adjustable through threading the tube/plate or using a sliding tube and a grommet in the plate.
When my wife walked by and without knowledge of what I was creating asked why I was making a “pour over coffee maker”, I realized that it was very similar and could possibly use a commercially available model as the starting point for an assistive technology solution. So I may order something like this one: http://a.co/d/3mMiKi3 which can be seen to the right.
Ultimately there is an existing solution which doesn’t appear to me to be overpriced. It solves the issue of overfilling and there is even a model that vibrates instead of beeping loudly which may be undesirable in a public environment. So there you have it, if you know someone looking to fill up there cup without being able to see, the Say when liquid level sensor may be the assistive technology solution they need.