fondazione shield
Description
The number of young people who contract HIV is growing also due to the absence of adequate information campaigns, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità reports a greater incidence of syndrama in young people between the ages of 25 and 29, without excluding that the virus may have been contracted when they were still minors. This phenomenon occurs due to the absence of information, a lack of prevention but above all a late diagnosis, as this is prohibited for unaccompanied minors.
The vending machine of the Shield Foundation, a hypothetical foundation that deals with the management of the service, was born from the idea of designing a condom vending machine with a plus focused on the possibility of carrying out an HIV test.
The main objectives of the project are:
- educate and make the user aware of the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases;
- increase the clarity of condom packaging e of the interface of the vending machines;
- make HIV testing accessible to all;
- allow the test to be carried out quickly, safely and at any time of day or night.
For each package of condoms sold, it is envisaged that a part of the profit will be allocated to the foundation itself so that the test can have a lower price than the tests that can be purchased in pharmacies and is, therefore, within everyone’s reach. Once the HIV test has been carried out, the user will be provided with a code, aimed at maintaining anonymity, through which after more than twenty minutes he will be able to see, by accessing the foundation’s website, his own result and that of all those who have performed the test previously.
For the construction of the 1:1 scale prototype, it was decided to use a wooden supporting structure covered with a sheet of resin to obtain a curved surface. The fuchsia parts were 3D printed and then glued to the structure.
The prototype is functional thanks to programming with Arduino. In particular, it is possible to operate the spirals of the vending machine by denting the buttons on the front. It is also possible to see the light of the side LEDs alternate for each phase of the HIV test.
Conclusion
This method of acquiring the result makes it possible to eliminate the taboo of this issue and the misinformation on the percentage of subjects positive for the virus.
The vending machine is designed in aluminum plate, chosen for its lightness and ease of production.