Innovation Blog

As a designer I have always thought that the best designed fruit is the banana. It comes in its own biodegradable packaging, has built in feedback to tell you when it is good to eat, has no mess, tastes great, and is good for you. However, our favorite fruit's very existence is being threatened by a fungus. The first time the world's banana crop got hit the “Big Mike” was replaced with the “Cavendish”. This time the world's banana growers are scared. They don't have a replacement for the Cavendish banana to plant when their trees get hit with the fungus. Regardless of your opinion on genetically modified foods, you should read this article if you love bananas.

In a February 2005 entry on this blog, we posted a story about Arizona State University's effort to set up a flexible display research lab. Here is another story about flexible displays that are due to hit us consumers soon. LG Phillips and E Ink that have already developed prototypes of flexible 10” displays. Seiko Epson is due to put out the first rollable display in a watch next year in Japan. Finally the electronic newspaper is within our reach.

Mihri Ozkan and Cengiz Ozkan have been listening to cancer cells and it could lead to a new treatment for cancer. The two have been applying nanotechnology to “listen” to the subtle singles put off by cancer cells and then using what they hear to apply chemotherapy to only the cancerous cells leaving the health cells alone. With all the work being done in nanotechnology what are you doing in this area? If you aren't investing in these new technology areas your competitors are. As nanotechnology based products come to the market will you still have a competitive product?

As a product development consultant, to do no harm is an obvious table stake. We don't talk about it, we assume it as the basis of what we do, what we believe in. We would like to be improving our end users' lives through positive experiences with the things that we have developed. However, sometimes things go seriously awry in the development process. Sony Corporation is now under fire for potentially weakening the defenses of millions of computers with their copyright protection software. Did you open a Sony music CD on your PC? Did a co-worker or your child? Now your computer may be vulnerable to many new viruses. According to this Wired article, it is really easy for anyone to write a virus that can get through your defenses. Sony has agreed to stop using the copyright protection software on its music CDs but is not recalling the Cds that everyone has already purchased or are still on the shelves waiting to be purchased. Beware!