University of Quebec develops ice hockey for visually impaired people using 3D printing

There is no doubt that nothing can stop Canadians' love of ice hockey, even visual impairments. In Montreal, there is a visually impaired ice hockey team "Les Hiboux de Montreal" (meaning Montreal's owl) who is trying to play ice hockey. In order to make up for the weakness of vision, this team uses a tin can filled with stones as a puck, so that the ice hockey will make a sound when it is moving to help them judge. However, the players still hope to play the standard ice hockey one day.

Fortunately, their hopes will soon become a reality. Gilles Ouellet is the President of Les Hiboux and an employee of the University of Quebec Montreal (UQAM). Just over a year ago, he found the school hope to solve the hockey problem of this team.

Ouellet said, "We talked to the school's vice-principal about our project and said that we want to develop a real electronic ice hockey that can make a sound whether it is still or in motion."

So through the vice president, Ouellet came into contact with UQAM's design professor Steve Vézeau. So the two started to work together to develop a hockey puck that can be used for visually impaired people but still maintains the standard shape and weight.

In this project, Vézeau chose to make ice hockey through 3D modeling and 3D printing technology and use polyurethane as its material.

Because of the need to install audio components in the hockey, Vézeau's biggest challenge is how to design a disc-shaped casing to protect the fragile audio electronics from the constant impact of the hockey stick. In addition, developers need to consider the effects of low temperature, water and humidity on the ice hockey.

At present, the design of this ice hockey has been developed to the third generation. The latest ice hockey prototype is 5.25 inches in diameter by 2 inches thick, which is significantly larger than the standard ice hockey (3 x 1 inch). The prototype weighs 400 grams and is twice as heavy as a standard ice hockey. “We have found a good way to make the ice hockey both durable, not easily damaged, easy to control, and easy to hit. The next challenge is to reduce its weight,” Vézeau said.

To reduce the weight of the disc, developers may have to find a plastics company as a partner, but they expect this task to be difficult. Vézeau explained, “This is not a profitable project for injection molding companies. The market is too small. Maybe big companies are doing charity to do it, but if they only consider economic factors, they won’t Participate because it doesn't make money."

One of the main features of this ice hockey designed for the visually impaired is the audio components that are mounted on it. For this feature, the development team said that unlike placing stones in iron cans, 3D printed ice hockeys emit different sounds to indicate whether their state is motion or still.

Another member of the development team, Professor Mounir Boukadoum, also from UQAM, said: "We decided to make a system that includes an accelerometer, motion detector and sound generator that can be hit according to the different forces that the ice hockey is subjected to. Produce sounds of different frequencies."

Although the ice hockey dedicated to the visually impaired is still in the process of development, developers believe that the final prototype will be completed soon. To facilitate this process, Les Hiboux launched a crowdfunding campaign on makeachamp.com. Ouellet said that so far, they spend about $8,000 to $10,000 on ice hockey development.

Ouellet hopes that this season will be the last season for Canada's visually impaired ice hockey team to use a stone can with a stone can. "Our goal is not to make money from this. It is to expand the sport, develop it, and hope to bring it to the 2022 Paralympics," Ouellet said.

(Editor)

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