Sketches
Survey
Respondent #1 - Jennifer McGee: She thought that the an automatic heat-shield was a good idea because she could just flip a switch and activate the heat-shield to block the sun's harmful rays from the interior of the car. Mrs. McGee liked the idea of a retractable heat shield but wondered if it was too similar to the design of the other heat shields already available. Specifically, she did not like the umbrella design because she felt it was too much of a hassle to have to deal with and it was an eye sore. The dehumidifier and filter were both okay ideas to her but she didn't understand how these could actually make the vehicle cooler.
Respondent #2 - Stephen McGee: Mr. McGee’s main concern with our designs was that he did not know if any of them would fit inside of his truck. Any design that involved manually having to do something he said he would not buy because it was too much effort to not have a hot truck. Another concern of his was if any of the heat-shields would impair his driving or would cover his window stickers he uses for tolls and security gates. He did like the umbrella design but only as a rain cover for the bed of his truck rather than a sunshade to keep block the heat.
Respondent #3 - Misha Koulikov: He liked the umbrella and the manual heat-shield because its not as invasive as the other solutions, and he didn't like the dehumidifier or the ice pack idea because you can just turn the air conditioning on instead, and he said that the ice pack especially would be a hassle because you have to manually replace the ice. The respondent liked the roller ides except for the fully retractable design, because it would block the sun roof. his favorite idea was the accordion style heat-shield because there was less of a chance of a malfunction, for example a jam or the roller spring being broken.
Respondent #4 - Natalia Tchernycheva: she wasn't thrilled by any of the ideas that required any manual action, such as the external heat-shield, the ice pack, or the umbrella. Her favorite was the roll up heat-shield, because it could roll up into the casing and she could forget about it. The only problem she has with the accordion style was that the wire could get loose and create too much slack so that the system wouldn't work properly. Her least favorite idea was the air filter because it would restrict vision out of the passenger and driver side windows, also it wouldn't cool the car down.
Respondent #5 - Yurik Koulikov: Yurik didn't like the dehumidifier, air filter. or the ice pack saying "they are all extremely inefficient, and would not work in cooling your car down." He also said that he didn't like the manual heat shield because it didn't solve the problem completely. His favorite idea was the accordion style heat shield because it had the least chance of a malfunction. Overall he thought that all the ideas were creative but not all of them were effective in solving the solution.
Respondent #6 - Billy: Billy was very impressed by the designs we made and said that they were all very innovative. he did have a favorite, which was the retractable heat-shield. He liked it because he wouldn't have to look at the flaps on the side or a casing above his head.
Respondent #7 - Conner McGee: Connor liked some of the ideas on the list like the Accordion heat shield and the Umbrella, because of the ergonomics and how easy they were to use. He disliked ideas like the Ice pack and Dehumidifier because of the maintenance they required to keep. His favorite was the Accordion because of how little he had to maintain and operate it, with the push of a button you can setup the shield on your car that keeps it nice and cool throughout the summer.
Respondent #8 - Stephanie Fuchsluger: Stephanie thought that some of our ideas were good and was not a fan of the rest of them. She liked the heat-shield types of designs but she would not buy them unless they were easy to install. One concern she was was if you accidentally pressed the switch to deploy the heat-shield would it roll out while driving? She did not like or understand how the ice pack, dehumidifier, and air filter would actually work in a real world scenario.
Respondent #9 : Chris Shepard
He was pretty indifferent about all of the designs except for the more traditional heat shields which he did think were good ideas. Chris' main concern was it they would be installed in a way that would void the warranty on his truck. Another thing that he wanted to know is how it would look inside of his truck because he did not want the heat-shield to be an eye sore.
Respondent #10 : Jacob Fuchsluger
Since Jacob has a background in emergency services he thought that solving the problem of cars getting too hot inside was a really good idea. He was not too concerned with how we managed to keep the car cool as long as it worked. Jacob said that he liked the automatic heat-shield ideas the best only because he knew that they worked already and having them be automatic would maybe push more people towards using them.
Survey summary
After compiling our survey findings we found that some ideas were far better than others. A common trend amongst all the respondents was that they liked the different heat-shields and some respondents preferred some over others because of their own personal experience and the way they would prefer it. For example, people with sun roofs preferred either the accordion style or the retractable style, and people with out sunroofs preferred the roof retractable style heat-shield. Also, respondents were not very fond of the ideas that differed from the heat-shield, such as the dehumidifier or the ice pack because they wouldnt be as effective when the car is not running. In conclusion we will continue to improve on our design through out the engineering process by making small adjustments from professional feedback.
Poster Walk
Overall the feedback on our initial design was very positive and most of the people felt that the problem we are solving would be very helpful. One of the main concerns was that when retracted the head-shield may cover too much of the windshield and obstructed the drivers view in certain cars. To make sure that this doesn't happen, the retracted heat-shield will sit somewhere inside of the roof panel or the plastic on the sides of the windshield. The next concern was how will the heat-shield be automatically retractable. For our prototype we plan to have a three position momentary switch to control when and which direction the motors will turn in order to retract or deploy the heat-shield. The last concern a lot of people had was if the heat-shield would accidentally unfold while driving and impair the driver. For this reason we may choose to have the heat-shield stay stored on the sides of the windshield rather than the top so if it were to malfunction it would not impair the driver too much.
Decision Matrix
Annotated Final Design
Final Design DescriptionFor our final design we decided to go with an accordion style heat-shield that deploys from both sides of the windshield. The heat-shield will stay folded at each side of the windshield and when deployed will unfold completely flat covering the whole windshield. Each side will be run by separate motors that will be connected to one switch which will move the heat-shield from closed/folded to open/deployed. The motors will be mounted at the top of each side of the windshield and will sit along the inside of the car body. A long screw will be connected to each motor that will drive the heat-shield back and fourth. Some sort of nut will be connected to the top end of the heat-shield and this is how the screw will drive the heat-shield along the windshield. The heat-shield will also run along tracks at the top and bottom of the windshield to keep it tight. The wiring and battery will be hidden underneath of the dash board of the car keeping only the control switch exposed.
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