The Frictional Slab is a component of the more complex, more developed idea, the Frictional Tunnel.
However, with the frictional slab we are merely looking at if a frictional surface can move a shirt up the
arms and down the back. Figure 47 shows the frictional slab used in testing. To test whether it can move
the shirt up the arms, we lay the slab out in front of the user, then the user puts their arms through the
arm holes, lays their arms and shirt over the slab, then leans forward, putting their weight against the slab
in order for it to pull on the shirt. The user continues until the shirt is all the way up their arms. To test
whether it can move the shirt up or down the back, the user will already have the shirt over their arms and
head. The user then leans forward and the Frictional Slab is held above them, leaving a slight gap for wiggle
room. The user pushed upward against the slab and either pulls or pushes in order to move the shirt in the
correct direction up or down the back.
Figure 47: The frictional slab
RESULTS:
Because the process of putting on and taking off a shirt is difficult to quantify in objective terms, we rated
our personal experience from performance testing through different criteria related to using a device to put
on and/or take off a shirt, as listed in Table 11. The table uses a scale of 0 to 5 to determine how well each
device fulfills the criteria where 0 means not at all fulfilled and 5 means fulfilled completely.
H-board
Dressing Bars
Ladder
Frictional Slab
Arms through holes
5
5
3
3
Head through hole
3
5
2
0
Shirt over shoulders
5
4
1
0
Shirt down back
0
0
2
3
Ease of use
4
4
3
3
Quickness of use
4
5
3
2
Design simplicity
3
5
4
5
Comfort
3
4
5
2
Storability
4
4
5
2
Safety
3
4
5
3
Table 11: Performance testing results
49