When an accident left him paralysed, Innovision founder and Director of Engineering Doug Domel experienced firsthand the indignity of the current method for weighing people with disabilities. “A sling device lifted me out of bed, and I felt like a fish being weighed on the dock. I knew that I had to devise a better way that would spare others this humiliation.” Weighing oneself is an everyday necessity in the life of a wheelchair user. There are specially designed scales for this, because wheel-chair bound patients are not able to use “generic” scales. The WS1204 is an innovative system that makes weighing easier for everyone involved in the process. Formally reduced to just a few elements, the scale is light and highly flexible in use. It consists of four low profile wireless weighing pads. A well thought-out innovation that makes it easy to use in daily life is the wireless handheld controller that includes an attached neck-strap, allowing medical technicians to free their hands for other tasks. Weighing a patient is simple; a weighing pad is placed in front of each wheelchair wheel. The wheelchair is rolled onto the four pads, and the pads send data wirelessly to the remote display where the patient’s weight is calculated and stored into the memory on the controller for simple monitoring of the patient’s weight. The formal as well as functional principle of the WS1204 not only makes the process of weighing a patient less time intensive but is also aesthetically innovative.
Statement by the Jury
The WS1204 by manufacturer Innovision Devices represents an outstanding design concept in the field of wheelchair scales that makes their daily use considerably easier for everybody involved. The four pads, on to which the wheelchair is placed, are very light and of low profile, and in combination with the wireless display form a portable system for everyday work in medical environments. The wheelchair scales are instantly ready for use and show high awareness for the situation of people dependent on a wheelchair: a noticeable enhancement in the quality of life.
Credits
Manufacturer:
Innovision Devices LLC, USA
In-house design:
Innovision Devices LLC, Douglas Domel, Jim Dow, USA