Industrial Design and Research
15 Week Project on Urban Logistics
E-Commerce dominates the retail space. Many customers prefer to buy online and order packages to ship to their homes.
How can distribution centers keep up with growing demands?
Human Workers as Resources
Even as distribution centers turn to automated processes, human workers still serve critical functions by performing tasks that cannot be done by machines.
Design a wearable that helps human workers perform essential functions in the warehouse.
Workers need help finding which boxes to pick.
Picking accounts for 40-50% of a distribution center’s annual operational costs.1
Microsoft (2021)3 VR Compare (2021)4
Current Visual Assistants
As a hands-free solution, visual assistants could help workers quickly identify boxes to pick. However, augmented reality devices on the market are too bulky and distracting to workers.
An ergonomics study evaluated current devices concluding,
No productivity differences for the different design types. Participants disliked their options.
Smith (2021)
Smart safety glasses could help workers identify barcodes.
Minimize design components, focus visual stimuli, and utilize scanning and haptic feedback.
Espire
The smart wearable that helps workers identify which items to pick.
1Daytex Corporation (2021). 2Smith (2021). 3Microsoft (2021). “Toyota Simplifies complex repairs and accelerates training with Mixed Reality on HoloLens 2.” 4VR Compare (2021). “Compare Headsets: RealWear HMT-1 and Vuzix M400.”
Karina Bhattacharya 