Design a smart home for the blind

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Design a smart home for the blind

Asked at Google over a year ago

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pavan roy · Answer 1 · 2022-10-06T11:04:16+0000

Clarifying questions:

Are we targeting any particular geography? India

Blind means Partial Blind or Full vision Impairment? Full vision impairment

Have any budget constraints? NO

Who is making this? Google

Describe Product:

Google Nest is a line of smart home products including smart speakers, smart displays, streaming devices, thermostats, detectors, routers and security systems including smart doorbells, cameras and smart locks. These all products use IoT technologies. Customers can control their devices by using voice assistants like Google Home.

Goal: Building smart home for full vision impairment people without Budget constraints

User group:

1. Fully vision impairment personas: person who can’t see anything

2. Partially Blind: person who have some level of sight but can’t see anything.

Here I am going to focus on Fully vision impairment personas.

Pain Points:

1. Turn on/off lights (Lighting Control)

2. Control heating and cooling systems in a home

3. Stairways

4. Notify homeowners of events occurring in the home

5. Security

6. Daily routines

7. Documentation for the smart home for the blind

8. Identifying objects

9. Playing music, audio books and podcasts

10. Phone calls and messaging

Brainstorming Solutions:

Pain Point	Solutions
Lighting Control	Motion sensors can be used to trigger Lighting scenes in/ voice assistant can also be used.
Control Heating and colling systems in a home	Voice assistant through Google Home can be used to control heating, cooling, cooking system etc.
Stairways	Proximity sensors can be placed at the top and bottom of the stairs to provide audible warning for people when they approach the stairs.
Notify Homeowners of event occurring in the home	Modern sensors that include voice messages can provide the missing information such as smoke detectors can report in which room smoke has been detected.
Security	Smart doorbells can be used to provide protection to a visually impaired homeowner. Facial recognition in the nest hello can be trained to identify/allow frequent visitors.
Daily routines	Daily routines such as at the time of waking/sleeping, open/close the front door, turn on/off the kitchen light, living room, bedroom light can be controlled through Google Home voice control.
Documentation for the smart home for blind	Documentation for the smart home must be printed in Brail such as what commands are available for controlling the lights, TV, Thermostat?
Identifying Objects	An object can be held in front of the camera can be asked to Google Home “what am I holding” will provide the user with a description of the object.
playing audio and phone calls	Voice assistant through Google home can be integrated to help in playing audio and phone calls

Most of the pain points can be solved through integrating smart device to Google Home based voice control through IoT technology.

Evaluating solutions:

Solution	Implementation effort	Impact on user	MoSCow
Google Home Voice Assistant	High	High	Must have
Motion Sensors	Medium	Low	Could have
Proximity Sensors with Audio for Stairs	Medium	Medium	Must have
Modern sensors with detectors	Medium	Low	Should have
Smart doorbells with facial recognition	Medium	Medium	Must have
Documentation for smart home	Low	High	Must have

So, in MVP, we can include

· Google Home Voice Assistant,

· Proximity sensors for stairs

· smart doorbells

· Documentation for smart home in Brail.

Success Metrics:

· Google Home device sold per year

· Proximity sensors sold and installed per year

· Smart doorbells sold and become active per week

· Documentation sold per year.

· No. of User’s review per year

· Smart home devices sold through referral.

Summary

I was tasked to design the Smart home for visually impaired. After defining the Goal, I choose Fully vision impaired person and identify pain points for those. After that I identify the solution for pain points, prioritized them and defined MVP.MVP include Google Home, Proximity sensors, Smart doorbells and Documentation. Finally, I defined success metrics for the MVP.