People spend hundreds of dollars outsourcing gutter cleaning and window cleaning. People take a ton of pride in how their house looks, and this is why during a simple drive around Wayland, it is almost impossible to not see a landscape truck out and about. People hate cleaning the outsides of their homes because of the constant movement of climbing up and down the ladder and having to lug a heavy ladder around their whole house. The original idea for this project came when my Dad told me I had to go outside and clean my gutters before I watched football. There is really no way to rush through cleaning the gutter, and it took me over two hours to finally finish cleaning the gutters.
3-D Footwear, what we orginally called “Ladder Boots,” originated as an idea on how to get up to high things without having to drag around a stool, or pull a chair against the wall. However, the idea of always walking around with a box of sorts on your feet wasn’t exactly practical. We tinkered with many ideas for trying to create a system where the user would be able to get up and down safely for a while. We really liked the idea of having telescoping poles somehow integrated into the boots, but with the time crunch and materials we had, it just didn’t seem possible. Therefore, we decided to stick with the linear ratchet system because of the stability it provided and the implementation in the real world it already has. As the idea developed, we found that they didn’t only have to be practical, but they could also be fun. That is how we decided to make something that the user could easily put on and take off both inside and outside the house. Kids are always amazed with stilts and being taller, now 3-D footwear can accomplish that dream in a new and flexible way.
Building a prototype that would look good and also be functional was a huge challenge. We brainstormed several ideas that in the moment sounded amazing, but through research found that they would be nearly impossible, or take lots of time that we simply didn’t have. We decided to use something that was already built and work off of it. We did this because it would be able to hold us up and allow for the main concept of the idea to work. Even though it can still support us, it is still just a prototype. With about a week and a half left, we and another group working on a type of Ladder Boots met with Mike Ellenbogen of Evolv. He showed us how he uses air to hold up his machines and make it so they are portable. We thought this could be implemented into our telescoping poles idea, but with the time available we decided to stick to what we already had made. The idea behind our prototype is that it gets the idea functionality of the idea across. Though we can’t walk around in them and need support to stay balanced, the poles support us and allow us to lift up higher without an issue. It shows how a linear ratchet could be implemented into telescoping poles to make our idea more balanced.
In making the prototype we ran into the issue of creating sturdy feet and making sure the platforms you stand on didn’t wobble. We decided to make both out of wood, and the pallets you stand on out of plywood because it’s stronger. Instead of gluing the feet together, we just cut out a slot that fit snug with the ratcheting system. This way there is no fear of it coming apart while we are on it. The feet we figured we could make stronger by just increasing the surface area of the ground that is touching the 3-D Footwear. So we created wooden squares that the ratcheting poles could sit in. The prototype isn’t at all what we imagined we would be making at first, but it communicates the basic idea and at least keeps the idea alive. (There was a time when the idea might have died had Mr. Moody not told us to fight harder for it.)
Ladders are a useful tool that gets the job done. But we believe that getting the job done isn’t enough. e believe that our idea would make odd jobs around the house fun and easy. Like I said prior, ladders are heavy and can be a pain to go up and down and up and back down to move it slightly to get to a new spot. That's why we came up with 3-D Footwear.
If given more time, we would have focused our time on developing telescoping poles that involve a type of air bag to raise the user. The ratcheting system is a good start, but implementing them into telescoping poles is very challenging; and with air bags, we believe that we would be able to build a system that would allow the user to slowly lower themselves as well. In our current ratcheting system, another user is required to lower the one using the boots to the ground.
3-D footwear is a new inventive footwear that allows you to adjust your height by extending and retracting to put you at the right height to accomplish common household tasks. As you lift your foot, the ratchet system clicks into place beneath you foot allowing you to pull yourself up. Your foot rests on a wooden platform attached to a steel linear ratchet. Not only will it get you to the height you need, but it allows for much easier mobility and storage. For example, 3-D footwear provides an easier and more effective way to get to your gutters, to clean your windows, and to scrape off ice dams. Ladder Boots eliminate the issue of carrying a heavy ladder, or having to spend multiple days on a task because of the inefficiencies of lugging around a ladder. Unlike a ladder, where you have to get down and reposition it, 3-D Footwear allows you to have a whole new dimension of freedom. Instead of being limited to only walking in the x and y direction, movement in a new dimension is created. Escape from Flatland and embrace 3-D Footwear!
