The Design Technology Blog

Category: Innovation

  • 3D Printing- Food- Saving Lives

    3D printing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital model, and performed by a materials printer using digital technology. 3D printing has come up with a way to end hunger. 3D printing can end hunger by creating 3D food.

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    3D printed food will affect mankind, as it will feed everyone. According to the “contacter”, 3D printing meanms the end of food waste. If ever the worlds population reaches its peak, the people will not be able to live due to hunger. However, due to the 3d printed foods, people will be able to live without hunger. The machines will have powder that is shelf stable for up to 30 years, having all the nutrients.The 3D printing affects the society socialy as not only the rich will be able to never face hunger, but also the poor. The 3D printer will provide the poor with food at a lower price.

    Not only will3D printing help the people from being exposed to hunger, it will also save lives. On May 22nd 2013, a baby was saved by 3D printing from tracheomalacia, which is a diease that causes the windpipe to collapse. After being given the permission the doctors were allowed to use the 3D printed part in order to save the baby.

    This shows a future of advancement in medicine. 3D will help save lives that are suffering. This as said before, will lead to an adfvancement in medicine, and save many lives, moreover, it will make the process of organ donation faster as the patient will not have to wait for an organ donor, instead the organ can be 3D printed.

    In conclusion, 3D printing is an excellent invention, as in the soon future it will be saving lives due to organ donation and prevention of hunger.

     

     

     

     

    References:

    “3D Printed Medical Device Saves Baby’s Life | Video – Live Science | e! Science News.” e! Science News | Latest science news articles. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2013. http://esciencenews.com/sources/live.science/2013/05/22/3d.printed.medical.device.saves.babys.life.video.
     
    “The Audacious Plan to End Hunger With 3D-Printed Food.” Mashable. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2013. http://mashable.com/2013/05/21/end-hunger-3d-printed-food/.
     

  • 3D Printed Bionic Ear

    3D printing is a porcess in which a three-dimensional solid object is made from a digital model. It is differentiated from most typical machining techniques that depend on the process of removing materials by cutting or drilling. It uses a digital technology that works for prototyping as well as distributed manufacturing in fields like industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, geographic information systems and civil engineering.

    Scientists at Princeton University have used 3D printing to design a bionic ear that can hear better than a normal human ear can. The printed ear intertwines embedded electronics, as the Princeton researchers 3D-printed nano particles and cells and combined cartilage with a small coil antenna to produce the bionic ear.

    The ear ended up hearing radio frequencies a million times higher than the average human ear. Lead researcher and assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton Michael McAlpine reported that “the way that our ear hears now is we pick up acoustic signals and then we convert those into electrical signals that go to our brain. What this ear does is it has this electronic coil on it and it picks up electronic signals directly.” The research team wanted to ask the question of whether it would be possible to grow an organ in a petri dish with intertwined electronics as the organ developed. The successful bionic ear was made using a $1,000 3D printer to print the cells and electronics. Then, the ear was placed in a petri dish to allow the cells culture for 10 weeks into cartilage tissue.

    Professor McAlpine said that his team did not create the bionic ear to help the deaf or those without ears, but rather “The idea of this was: can you take a normal, healthy, average human and give them superpower that they wouldn’t normally have?”

    Works Cited:

    “3D printing – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing>.

    Ramachandran, Vignesh. “3D-Printed ‘Bionic’ Ear Can Hear Beyond Human Ability.” Mashable. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2013. <http://mashable.com/2013/05/24/3d-printed-ear-princeton/>.

  • iPad

    Innovation: iPad- changes over the years

    iPad

    Introduced through apple, the iPad has become an extremely successful product. It is like a laptop where almost anywhere you can get instant internet access through 3G connection and sync it to all your personal and business related work. Its size is very convenient, allowing you to carry it anywhere without it being a burden as it is not heavy. This innovation was first introduced in 2010 and has since undergone multiple constructive discontents, now having five variants: original, iPad 2, third generation, fourth generation and the iPad mini. With each new release, there are improvements in many aspects which include size, weight, and the actual features. It is like a tablet which is completely touch screen, only having one button which takes you back to the home screen. The iPad is used entirely through the use of the hands where you can control each move proving to be extremely convenient.

    Environmental Effect:

    Though it is a revolutionary innovation, the Apple company tries to pose as though they are extremely environmentally friendly. However, parts used to make the ipad contain rare earth metals, toxic components and carcinogens. The way that the product is produced and the manner in which they are gotten in fact leads to horrible toxins released in to the environment. One of the greatest concerns pertaining to the production of these apple products is the mining of rare earth minerals. These parts are used not only in apple products, but are also needed for a wide variety of modern electric components such as circuits, GPS receivers, LCD screens as well as computer processors. These rare earth minerals can be found all over the world, however they are usually mined in China. The mining of these minerals leads to great environmental damage as most of them are put in miniscule quantities such as natural ore- this, requiring toxic refining process in order to get the pure product. The refining processes of these then leads to extremely toxic chemicals being thrown in to the environment. Though something that everyone may love, as can be seen the production of the iPad is causing great harm to the environment.

    References:

  • Innovative technology-OLED’s

     

    A technology that could be considered innovative are organic light-emitting diode, or OLED’s. These are organic compounds that will emit a color light if electricity is allowed to flow through them. These OLED’s are used in the digital display of many technologies, like phones, televisions, and handheld gaming consoles. Compared to LCD, they are better in many ways. OLED’s doing consume nearly as much power as a LCD, making the battery efficiently of them longer. The refreshing rate for OLED’s is much faster allowing the OLED’s to respond faster. Even though process of making OLED’s is more expensive than producing LCD’s, OLED’s can be made much cheaper, for instance if OLED screen printing becomes used for mass production. Finally, the brightness and clarity of OLED’s are much higher compared to LCD’s. They don’t need to have glass to be built with it, which would absorb some of the light. OLED’s are also multi-layered, which makes the picture clearer. In addition to being better, they are friendlier on the environment. First off, they do use as much electricity as the other two. This makes them cheaper than the other two to use. As well, less energy is needed to power them, which affects the overall energy output of power plants, lowering their pollution.  Additionally, when compared to LCD, is that LCD lights have mercury. Mercury is toxic to both the environment and to people, which is one of the negative effects of them. OLED’s do not use mercury, which allows them to be safer, as well as cheaper in terms of recycling cost. With LED’s, OLED’s are both built with the same materials. However, OLED’s need fewer materials to build the same color scheme. This allows OLED’s to be made with fewer materials, making less waste that might have to recycle later. Finally, OLED’s can be used longer compared to the other two. This allows as well less waste to be recycled, because there is less that you would have to recycle.

    References

    Freudenrich, Craig. “How OLEDs Work.” HowStuffWorks. N.p., 2012. Web. 09 Dec. 2012

    G, Tobias. Green OLED Light. Digital image. Wikipedia. N.p., 9 Jan. 2008. Web. 9 Dec. 2012.

  • Innovative Work- Earphone Alarm

    Earphone Alarm

    The Earphone Alarm, also known as a Anshinkun-2 is a new Japanese gadget that works as a small timer, worn just like an earphone. It’s very light, so it does not cause discomfort, and small so it’s not unattractive, nor does it get in the way. Its’ portable, and runs on batteries so it does not need to be plugged in or charged. This gadget is very useful for multiple things, such as if you’re on a train for example and fall asleep, the timer will go off to wake you up so you don’t miss your stop. Another bonus about the Anshinkun-2 is because it’s in your ear, it won’t disrupt other people, and only you can hear it. Other situations it would be useful in would be if you need to work for a certain amount of time, just set it to go off when you need to stop. It’s handy when cooking because you can time your food and walk around the house or go out and not miss the alarm on the cooker, for example. Another big selling point about it is its waterproof, so you can use in when showering or skiing. It’s manufactured by the Japanese company Honda Tsushin Kogyo, and sells on the market for 11 dollars.

    Though it is a great product, there are also environmental factors to take into consideration. An example of this would be the manufacturing that takes place, the use of the product and the disposal of the packaging and batteries that it needs to function, which are bad for the environment while being made, and if they are not recycled properly. Also, the actual making of the gadget is not environmentally friendly, because like many, if not all factories, the smoke and chemicals released while the product is being made are bad for the atmosphere. When the earphone alarm is actually made, it then has to be shipped to other various countries which will be selling the product. The shipping not only costs money, but the shipment also has to be disposed of once the product is in its designated area, or should be recycled properly which is no guarantee. Then once it has actually reached the destination in which it will be sold, its packaging has to be taken care of properly, or it’ll just be thrown away and regarded as waste. We also should take into consideration what will happen with the actual product or earphone alarm when the buyer has finished with it. It could be recycled for parts, but will most likely just be thrown away.

     

     

    Citations-

    – “i-store guide: 10/23/09.” i-store guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2012. <http://i-storeguide.blogspot.com/2009_10_23_archive

    – “Coolest New Inventions from Japan: Earphone Alarm – BusinessWeek.” BusinessWeek Slide Shows and Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2012. <http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/09

     

  • Air-Conditioning

    Adjust the weather just the way you like

    Air-conditioning has affected society in three ways. It affected it environmentally, ethically, and morally. The environment has been affected by air-conditioning as no matter what the whether is like you can adjust it just the way you like. Therefore, if its summer and you are hot you can make your air-condition produce cold air making you colder, and vice versa. Air-conditioning changes whether of the environment, therefore, not making a difference between summer and winter. Air-condition affects morale as it boosts everyone’s morale, for example, if it is hot then people are very stuffy and sweaty and usually in a bad mood, unless they have air-condition which would help them be cool and allow them to be in the perfect weather, moreover, boosting their morale. Even when people sleep they cant sleep either in very cold weather or very hot, that’s why Air-conditioning is needed, cause it will produce the perfect weather allowing them to have a goodnight sleep. How it affects the society ethically is that it comforts us and gives us the exact breeze/weather we want, it controls are temperature. It also makes us not care whether its hot or cold because with air-conditioning we can adjust the weather.

    Refrences:

    “Samsung News :: Air Conditioners.” Mobile Phones | Televisions | Notebooks | Refrigeration – SAMSUNG AU. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2012. <http://samsung.com.au/news/category/home_appliance_news/air_conditioners>.

  • The Telephone

    The Telephone

    Invented in the mid 1870s by Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone revolutionized communication and has brought the world closer together.  Modern telephones have a microphone to speak into, an earphone or speaker that reproduces the voice of the other person, a ringer which makes a sound to alert you when a call is incoming, and a keypad to enter the telephone number of the telephone you are calling. The microphone and earphone are usually built into a handset which is held up to your face to talk. The keypad may be part of the handset or of a base unit to which the handset would be connected. Although originally designed for simple voice communications, most modern telephones have many additional capabilities. They may be able to send and receive text messages, take and display photographs, play music, and surf the Internet. These days’ Smartphone’s also integrate all computing needs.

    Environmental impact of cell phones

    There are 6.7 billion people on this planet and 61 percent have a cell phone subscription, that’s 4.1 billion. The average consumer will use their cell phone for less than a year, during that year it will use 4,221 mega joules of energy, the equivalent of 32 gallons of gas, and emit 112 kilograms of C02. Transferring 1 GB of data over a 3G network will use 939 mega joules of energy, the equivalent of 7.3 gallons of gas, and emit 17kg of C02. An unused but plugged in charger still draws about half a watt. If everyone left their charger plugged in ALLDAY, it would waste enough electricity to power 28,000 homes. 140,000,000 cell phones (4 per second) will end up in landfills this year. Leeching 80,000 lbs of lead into the earth, in that landfill is 4.7 tons of gold worth $56 million and 49 tons of silver worth $8.4 million. For every 515 cell phones recycled, it saves enough energy to power one home for a year. If all these thrown away cell phones were recycled, it would save enough energy to power 272,000 homes. To charge every cell phone in use on earth would require the equivalent of 584,000 gallons of gas and produce 35,000,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, imagine that every day, if we all charged our phones half as often it would be the equivalent of taking a million cars off the road. Although mobile phones only make up a small percentage of the e-waste mountain, manufacturers are aware of the need to address the issue. Leading makers, including Motorola, LG, Sony Ericsson and Philips, have all implemented eco-design aspects into their production lines, including reducing the amount of hazardous substances used in their products. Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer, produces a handset every nine seconds. It has decided to implement requirements set out in the EU Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive in all 10 of its factories around the globe. The RoHS Directive bans six substances (lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PBB and PDBE) from products that are either made or sold in the EU.

     

  • Fiberglass

    Fiberglass is an incredibly versatile material and it comes in several forms. Almost everyone has seen fiberglass insulation and anyone who has touched it will recall the itchy feeling often with a little rash which develops afterwards. This Is because the minute shards of glass cut into the skin and cause irritation.

    The fiberglass used in the automotive industry is different from insulation fiberglass. It usually comes in a mat, tissue or cloth, although a chopped strand mixed with resin is often used for large applications such as boat hulls.

    MATERIALS 

    Gelcoats are the shiny face of fiberglass, gelcoats are what you see on most fiberglass vehicles (which haven’t been painted) or boat hulls. Gelcoats consist of a thick gel-like resin mixed with a colored pigment, it is the first thing laid into a mold and therefore when the mold is removed it becomes the exterior.

    Below is simple diagram showing how many fiberglass bodies are constructed, there are other methods and this is just a common example.

     

    Tissue
    Fiberglass tissue as the name suggests is a very thin tissue like layer of fiberglass, it is very smooth and porous and the tissue sits underneath the gelcoat. Tissue helps to smooth out the inherent roughness of fiberglass matting, while also adding strength.

    Mat
    Fiberglass matting makes up the bulk of any fiberglass bodied car. Several layers are built up one on top of another until the desired thickness and strength is achieved. This is what you might see if you look at the inside of a fiberglass panel.

    Cloth
    Fiberglass cloth is strong and is often used where it may be visible and therefore aesthetics are important. One of the downsides of fiberglass cloth is that because the strands are neatly woven the layers do not intermesh like they do with the disorganised and loose strands on the fiberglass mat. Therefore the layers of cloth sit on top of one another, rather than meshing together like the fiberglass mat.

    Resin and Hardener
    Without resin the fiberglass itself would be useless for building anything requiring rigidity. Resin is mixed with a catalyst before application to the fiberglass. The drying process involves a chemical reaction which has several variables including, the amount of catalyst, temperature, humidity, and any water present in the fiberglass resin (water shouldn’t be there!).

    End result
    The results which can be achieved with fiberglass are quite impressive. Once fully hardened and sealed with resin or a gelcoat fiberglass is waterproof, relatively light weight and when done properly it is extremely strong. It is reasonably inexpensive when compared to the alternatives, in short it is an ideal material for the automotive field.

    http://www.fiberglasswarehouse.com/index.php

    http://www.inlinefiberglass.com/

    http://www.uscomposites.com/cloth.html

     

     

  • Water JetPack

    Everyone would like to be able to fly above the water, for unlimited time, and that is exactly what Jetlev-Flyer allows you to do. It is designed by a company named MS Watersports GmbH, a German company. The water jet pack is easy to maneuver and extremely stable, the main website explains that “the bilateral nozzles are positioned higher than your center of gravity, so your body behaves like a pendulum or hanging flower pot. The nozzles are also designed to counteract against rolling motion from side-to-side. The hose and water inside it adds a great deal of extra weight below your center of gravity, so the higher you fly, the more roll stability you have. In forward motion, drag from the hose provides a third stabilizing point, ensuring stable forward motion. Finally, the jetpack’s rigid back rest, saddle and body harness keep your upper torso rigid while the trapeze prevents your legs from flailing in the air.” So those qualities make the jet pack extremely flexible for the user allowing ease of use, and anyone older than 18 years old can use it, as long as they are in good physical shape and good health. The JetLev-Flyer can go up to a maximum of 30 feet above the water, and if someone falls, they will be falling at a speed less than 30mph and the water drag will slow them down, so they won’t hit the water so hard that it will cause injuries, plus the users use protective equipment. Another cool thing is that the JetLev-Flyer was designed so it can take up to 6 minutes to learn how to use it, so in no time you will be able to fly above the water. It also allows you to do a certain moves, such as 90 and 180 turn while up on the water, also you can do tight turns and many other more moves. And for people that don’t like noisy products, the JetLev-Flyer has no engine and no moving parts other than the articulated thrust assembly, the only noise is the water jets making splashing noises when they enter the water and the boat unit which provides the water for the jetpack has a great sound insulation. In conclusion the JetLev-Flyer is a fun product to use, which allows you to fly around, plus the jetpack is a quiet, comfortable product, the only negative aspect is the insanely high price varying from 79,900 –  99,900 Euros, so in other words only people with a great amount of money can afford such product.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    For more information you can visit the main website at http://www.jetlev-flyer.com/home.html

  • Wireless power

    A few years ago there was a demonstration by a team at Fulton Innovation of a product called eCoupled. Using the principle of electromagnetic induction, by which an electrical charge can be stimulated in a wire coil by placing another one nearby, the crazy boffins were able to display wireless power transfer.

    Despite being high voltage, they said, it was safe, efficient and could be applied to any surface. The demo room consisted of a kitchen without plugs, but full of lights that could be stuck anywhere and a frying pan that heated up just by sitting it on the counter. Put a phone on the same counter and it began charging. Clearly, this was the future.

     

    wireless power

     

    Fulton are still working on wireless power, but it’s a different company that’s beat it to the shops, Powermat – and its products are expensive for something that replaces a 50p mains plug.

    The Wireless Power Consortium are going to be finalising a standard for wireless power called Qi later this year, which should mean prices drop and manufacturers have the confidence to build the technology straight into devices, rather than requiring an adaptor.

    Another similar technology is the  Airnergy by RCA. It’s a tiny dongle that can turn Wi-Fi signals back into electricity for charging phone batteries and the like.