Innovation Blog

What was old is now new again. Who would have thought that the fountain pen would be used again for modern cutting edge technology, but that is just what is happening at Northwestern University in Chicago. Researchers have recently re-invented the fountain pen on a microscale level by developing a pen that can write on the molecular level!

The "nanoscale fountain pen" was constructed using microfabrication techniques based on silicon fab technology. The research behind this device stems from dip pen nanolithography (DPN), which combines microelectronics fabrication and microfluidics to achieve molecular manipulation at the nanoscale level.

Creation or evolution? Spiked-science is running a survey among the science community asking the question "If you could teach the world just one thing…" One of the most interesting entries is by Richard Dawkins, Charles Simonyl professor of the public understanding of science, Univiersity of Oxford, who explains that all design is really a result of evolution not of the product but of the designer. Now after you have read his explaination you have to wonder if he is a "professor of the public understanding of science" what would it be like to read the explaination by a professor who wasn't interested in the public understanding.

Imagine not having to worry about properly disposing of used hypodermic needles. Or how about a mini plasma furnace on your desktop. Better yet, how about both!
That is now possible with the Disinegrator Plus personal syringe disposal unit. This device generates a plasma arc of over 2500 degrees Fahrenheit to safely dispose of hypodermic needles. Not only does the heat neutralize any possible pathogens, but the device also literally disintegrates the needle itself. No longer do we have to worry about accidental needle pricks, no longer do we have to worry about accidentally contracting infectious diseases from used syringes, and no longer do we need special biohazard receptacles to store sharp used needles.

This new device is made possible by employing cutting edge modern technology and implementing it for a practical application. Here is another example of how engineering, design, and innovation through new technology is helping create a safer world for all of us.

Right now the camera on your cell phone does not take very good pictures. This is because the manufacturers are limited by the size of your phone. A good lens that can zoom in on something is large and cumbersome. Recently, scientists have developed an incredibly tiny liquid lens that may replace the current lens in your phone. It can zoom up to 3X and gives the option of adjusting the focal point. Read more about it in these articles:

Wired Magazine

PC Magazine

The Register

Everybody knows what internet searching is like. Type in a number of key words, hit return and you are presented with a long list of text with possible web pages to look at. That is the way it has worked since people first considered how to find things on the web. But now there is a new way to look at search results. But now there is an alternative. Check out grokker. Grokker organizes the results of the search and presents it as a series of bubble diagrams. Very cool and very helpful. So do your user interfaces look the same as everyone elses. Do they help your users be understand the information you are presenting? Maybe they should.

Was it Microsoft? ...or Apple? ...how about IBM? ...or Xerox? Well all of those answers are wrong. Probably the closest answer is NASA in 1962. Hard to believe? Well check out the history of the GUI. It just shows you how long "over night success" takes. So are you taking advantage of all the things that came before or are you trying to invent everything yourself. Learn from other peoples successes.

IQ scores have been rising steadily since the invention of IQ tests. However, since the 1980's the scores have risen dramatically. Scientists are wondering why. Some are pointing out that video games that improve spatial and problem solving skills are potentially responsible for helping people do better on the Raven's Progressive Matrices Test. Every 10 years or so the tests are adjusted so that the most of the scores are always in the middle. This has been happening since the 1930's. However, the students in the 1930's might be able to answer simple questions like, " What is the boiling point of water?" that most students today can't answer. We aren't producing more Einsteins and Mozarts then they were. So, are we smarter or were they?

Psychology Today
New Century School

Yet another product example of how old can make new is updating the old cathode ray tube (CRT), otherwise known as the television. Motorola has introduced new technology which will be licensed soon for commercial applications in the video electronics market. The technology is called “nano emissive display,” (NED) flat screen technology. The innovation lies in the use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) grown using an organic paste on common silicon oxide (glass) substrates. The CNTs, when sandwiched in an electric field, produce electron beams. The electron beams are then “fired” at a phosphor screen much like traditional CRT technology, but without the need for directing the beam, or rastering for each pixel to fluoresce since the screen is only a few millimeters from the surface of the CNTs. The advantage of this method is that existing LCD fabrication plants can be modified and adapted to produce the new displays which are thinner, faster, and lower cost than most large LCD panel technologies.

The advantages of cell phones: no telemarketers, no lousy service technicians, no wait for service, mobile calling, free long distance, etc. The telephone companies did not protect our privacy, give us affordable long distance rates, or decent service and the public is lashing back. Cell phones are quickly replacing land lines. How many people do you know that only have cell phones now? Researchers rely on telephones to interview and recruit people for ethnography and market research. How many people are they missing that can't be reached via land lines? When will they no longer be able to get a representative sample of consumers?

Cell Phone Summit

My daughter Monroe has 8 cavities. I know “terrible”, and the thing is, she is only seven years old. Now before you get the wrong idea, she has been to the dentist every six months for the last two years. Ok, maybe not the best dentist in the world, so we took her to the specialist. During her exam, he said something that really stayed with me. You see, Monroe has the kind of teeth that are more susceptible to cavities than most, softer I guess. So he told her, all wide eyes and rapt attention, that she would need to develop good habits to sustain her teeth if she wanted to keep them for her whole life. When I think about design lately, that idea keeps bouncing around in my head. Every year thousands of ideas are created and thousands of products are introduced. Few will sustain themselves. Of those that do, how many will live through decades or centuries? In a regular fashion the answers change but it's actually more about the integrity of the how and why, and the way, the questions get asked. We need to develop good habits about the how and why and way we develop products. Good thinking habits can sustain a designer's or a company's vision. Great ideas will sustain themselves for a long, long time......

Or in this case rocket parts. Well it may not be quite a new product development story but it does make a case for understanding the fall-out (literally in this case) from your designs. It seems that for the last 40 years the Plesetsk Space Center in northern Russia has been the heart of that country's space industry. For that 40 years the people that live down range for Plesetsk have had to do an imitation of chicken little. You know "the sky is falling" etc. So rather than bemoan their plight they have found ways to use the space junk to feed their families. Truely an example of being inventive with the hand you are dealt. But it should force us to ask the question "What is the fall-out from our products?" When the consumer is done with a product what becomes of the by-products? Truly innovative products need to consider not only the value they bring but also the repercussions that cause. Are your product truly friendly to not only their owners but also to the people who must deal with their by-products?

For 50 years we have seen a continual progression of smaller and more powerful electronic devices. Till today it seems everything you touch includes some sort of electronic device. It seems likely that may be changing. There is considerable research going on into photonics. Essentially replacing electrons with photons as the mechanism for all these activities. It seems that chips designed around photonics would use less energy and carry more data and work directly with fiber optic comminications networks. The trick is how to interface these photonic devices with electronic devices for the things that photonics are not able to do. Researchers at Cornell may have developed the first part of an answer. They have developed a silicon based device that can use an electronic signal to create a photonic signal. We are talking about nanostructures here. So check it out.

Nobel prize winning physicist Steven Chu believes that those termites who are eating your house have the secret to cheap replenishable fuel. It turns out that somehow termites are able to turn cellulose into an ethanol-like fuel. If we could do that as well as the termite then you might use your grass clippings to fuel your car. The secret is inside the termite's stomach and Steven wants to find out what it is. I can not wait because I have lots of grass clippings and they are cheaper than gas these days. So what can you learn from nature that will make quantum leap in the performance of your products?