Reggie: an intuitive tool for unintuitive doors

Reggie: an intuitive tool for unintuitive doors.

I was inspired by a movement/campaign/business in Toronto, ON., Canada. A man by the name of Luke Anderson, who is in a wheelchair, founded Stopgap Foundation with the goal of making the city more accessible.

The idea is to make these wood ramps and put them wherever one sees an inaccessible gap for someone who is physically handicapped.

Poorly designed doors are everywhere. Some look as if they should be pushed, but in fact, you should pull to open them, and visa versa. So with a small, compact electronic device that could be made cheaply, I want people to highlight these doors and help make them more intuitive by slapping a Reggie onto an unintuitive door. The “push” or “pull” signs do not work. And putting a Reggie on a door labeled “push” will make fun of this, and also the door.

Here’s everything you need to build one of your own.

To build your own, you will need:

• 1x speaker
• 13x wires
• 1x 10mm LED
• 2x breadboards (preferably 2x Breadboard Mini Solderable)
• 1x Arduino Nano
• CH304 Nano Driver
• 1x Audio FX Sound Board WAV/OGG 16mb
• 1x Ultrasonic Sensor – HC-SR04
• NewPing Library
• 1x 3M double-sided wall sticky
• 1x battery supply
• and a form to keep it all together. Here I’ve cut up a plastic container.

Download the NewPingLibrary. This allows you to interact with your Ultrasonic Sensor HC-SR04.

Check the underside of your Arduino Nano. The one being used in this tutorial is a CH304, corresponding to the CH304 Driver. Download it here.

Here’s the circuit:

Take a look at a video of the prototype:

Now see the Instructables tutorial to build one yourself!

If I were to continue to develop this idea, the goal would be to make the form and contents more compact and portable and friendly for the user.