We came up with several ideas for our “Imagine the Impossible” project, yet found that all of them had been already thought of or were in the making. After much frustration, we were happy when we finally came up with our idea– the Nandage.
Proposal for the idea of the Nandage
The Nandage would be a more efficient and comfortable alternative to using Ace bandages, casts, athletic tape, etc. to treat injuries. Made out of an elastic material, the Nandage would stretch to be wrapped on an injury such as a sprained wrist or broken arm however a patient needed. In its normal state, the Nandage would be soft enough to allow mobility but would still provide support for a sprain. If a patient needed a harder cast for a broken bone, he or she would pour hot water on it. After the injury was healed, the patient would put the material in ice-cold water to remove it, and it would return back to its original shape. Adam gave us great advice to look up thermo responsive elastomers because we were trying to find a material that would stretch and be used but then could return to its original form. We are definitely going to research this. Some problems with casts are that they smell and itch after a while. To prevent this, Nandage would have nanosilver particles that would prevent bacteria from growing under it. The Nandage would also contain vaults, some with Advil to help the pain, others with calcium to help the healing process, and ones with vitamin D to absorb the calcium. These would be released five minutes after applying the Nandage because of the patient’s body heat.
Traditional cast that smells and itches
Advil would be released by using vaults in the Nandage
While Nandage incorporates scientific ideas, it fails to incorporate an artistic side. We are thinking maybe we could have it where the Nandage would change colors depending on what stage of the healing process a patient was in. This would allow patients to not remove the Nandage too early or too late. The concept of the changing colors is just an idea right now; we still need to figure out how this would work. Hopefully we will be able to tie the worlds of science and art together.
Information about traditional casts: http://www.expertmdwitness.com/news22.htm
Nanosilver particles: http://www.jrnanotech.com/acatalog/More_Info.html
Vaults for drug delivery: http://www.physorg.com/news4068.html
Elasticity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasticity_(physics)
Strains, sprains, breaks, etc. :http://www.stjohn.org/HealthInfoLib/swArticle.aspx?1,1889