Drunk Driving Prevention Key
In my senior spring at MIT I took the class 2.739J Product Design and Development. This class brought together students from MIT's engineering school, MIT's business school, and RISD to create a product over the course of the semester. In a team of eight, my team and I decided to create a drunk driving prevention device. After much ideation and discussion with potential users, we created Dribe, a drunk driving prevention system that consists of an app and a key. A rod in the key prevents the user from pushing the key all the way into the ignition. Users must play an app game that tests reaction time to ensure the user is not drunk. When the game is won, the key unlocks for a limited amount of time, allowing the user to start the car.
My focus in the team was a key mechanism. Inside the key, the rod is attached to a spring. A linear actuator keeps the rod in place by inserting into a notch on the side. When the game is won, the linear actuator is activated for several seconds and the rod can be pressed down. When the key is removed from the ignition, the spring bounces back and the linear actuator locks back into place. One main focus for the key was creating a device that when unlocked once, must be able to lock itself again. This way, a user can't cheat the system and only play the game once.
Several iterations of keys were 3D printed before achieving the final design, as shown below. For the game, the team elected to create a form of whack-a-mole, in which users must click on the giraffes, but avoid all other animals.
