Age advances for everyone: it is the whole planet that becomes gradually olderThis is why more and more people are no longer able to carry out basic daily activities easily. We can still walk, but standing can be difficult: knees and hips greet us, and sometimes we need a hand in the form of a wheelchair.
Incidentally: being in a wheelchair does not necessarily imply not being able to walk, but only having difficulty moving. And to walk, maybe you use a walker so as not to burden your knees or back. This is a crucial and annoying step, because moving from one "vehicle" to another can be a problem. To address this, a team of designers developed a wheelchair concept with an integrated walker.
Cobi: walker, cane and wheelchair
Designed by the four designers Hyeon Park, Haeun Jung, Hyuntae Kim e Sookyoung Ahn, Cobi is a means of mobility designed for the elderly and for two purposes: the first is to extend their range of autonomy. The second, almost a consequence, is to change the perception of the elderly by others. “With Cobi, older people will lead a better, more dynamic and independent life,” say the designers.
How it's done?
Cobi has been designed in two individual parts that can combine and form a third one: a walker and a mobility device that together form the wheelchair. Cobi carries out this transformation without any human intervention: to switch from chair to walker, just press a button. When the wheelchair has arrived at its destination, the device releases itself. Not to mention that the chair returns by itself to its charging station when the battery drops below the guard level.
It is possible that Cobi, or devices created with similar criteria, will replace an electric or manual wheelchair in the future: it will be necessary to optimize the design and reduce costs, needless to say, but the “integrated” approach seems to me to be the winning one.
