JCaws

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This is a microscopic view of Velcro. I am amazed that something so simple is so effective. I wonder how many times the design was revised before it became what it is today

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Jump Start-Week 10

Uses for old unused phone booths:

stock each one with chargers that fit all types of phones. People can use them as phone booths when their phone batteries die. 

Make each phone booth a small wifi hot spot so that people walking around can stop by a phone booth and use the internet.

turn it into an information center for the surrounding area. people can stop by and find out where restaurants and sight seeing locations can be found.

turn them into vending machines for phone parts. you can buy adapters, chargers, batteries, and cases.

turn them into classy/clean port-o-potties

make them elevators down to the subway

Starbucks can buy them and make "vending machine coffee refill stations"

apple can buy them and put a genius in each one, so that on the street there are apple experts to help the public

make each one a station for an police officer, or fit each one with a "help call button" for quick responders

turn phone booths into a "portal", with a big screen and a camera. Random booths could be connected in different cities around the world, so you could go in front of a booth in New York and talk to someone in Tokyo.

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spill in the parking lot looks like an afro

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The surface of this bubble looks like a planet. It would be cool to take pictures like this with different types of soap to create different effects

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This is an awesome kid's room. I wonder what other video game themes could be applied to this

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Chapter 12-Idea Grid

The idea grid is a grid with 4 quadrants and organized like this:

left: think

right: feel

top: high involvement

bottom: low involvement

the object of the exercise is to take your idea and place it in a quadrant that combines 2 of these attributes. For my final project idea, (a string of lights around a track that can be used to help the runner pace themselves)  I thought the product would be "high involvement" and "think". The product I am designing would be "think" because it is a training tool for athletes which can collect and analyze data. It also belongs in the "high involvement" category because it would be an expensive thing to produce/set up, so only very serious programs would implement it. Overall, I think that this exercise helped me figure out what my audience is, and whether or not I should go the extra mile with features. If it is going to be expensive anyway, it might as well be over the top.

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i like using natural objects in an unnatural way, this must have taken a lot of time to do

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a 21st century take on the message in a bottle. 

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Chapter 31-Not Kansas

This thinkertoy exercise involves relaxing and allowing your mind to freely wonder without being censored. The idea is to see where your thoughts take you and write down anything of interest at the end of the "journey". In class we talked about how one of Einstein's creative thinking techniques was to relax in a chair with marbles in his hands, when he began to fall asleep and the marbles clattered to the floor waking him up, he would then write down the first thing that come to mind. I have found that I have come up with some very strange/cool ideas in this same state of mind. Whenever I take a nap in the afternoon, I find that in the few minutes before I actually fall asleep, I enter this unplugged state of consciousness which seems to have a dreamlike quality. As my thoughts leave my everyday like situations, they become less structured and they flow very easily, like a dream. Whenever I sleep I try to keep a notepad by the bed because I only have a few seconds to try to remember what happened in a dream. I usually have no luck, but every now and again I will jot down something at 3am that makes sense to me the next morning. I think that when we dream, our minds are not restricted by anything, but because we are so used to living in the physical world with restrictions, we tend to dream that way. In every dream, you have the power to fly and be a super hero, but you don't. I think that most creative ideas come when you tap into this way of thinking during everyday life.

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It is amazing to think that all of these pieces are used in the type writer, and now all of this is irrelevant 

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I like this design, every staircase could be used as storage. Something to add may be a spring mechanism to make sure all the drawers stay closed

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i don't mind washing dishes, but this is a good way to get out of it

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while this may be disgusting, it is very clever

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I wonder what other kind of designs you could make with this idea, or if you could combine liquids of different density to make the shape/image more realistic

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Chapter 29-Da Vinci's Technique

the concept of drawing your ideas instead of describing them with work is something that I have been practicing for a long time. I always think of things that are more easily drawn than described. I think that words can be interpreted in too many different ways in order to be an effective communication tool in certain situations. If I was trying to express an idea, I would rather draw a representation of it on paper so that I have something physical to reference while I am explaining it. Da Vinci's technique was to draw random scribbles with his eyes closed and then try to make sense fo the afterward, hoping to find inspiration in the lines and shapes that emerged. I think that this particular method would not necessarily produce many new ideas, but I do like the idea of drawing to communicate them. I have never been very good at drawing, but I like using it as a tool when I can.

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I like it when chefs take time to to be artistic

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Chapter 9-Scamper

This linear thinker toy seemed like a fun way to creatively think about new ideas. the object is to use the SCAMPER mnemonic to come up with questions and ideas during a challenge.

Substitute something

Combine it with something else

Adapt something to it

Modify/Magnify it

Put it to some other use

Eliminate something

Reverse or rearrange

when coming up with my idea for the final paper I used a few of the SCAMPER questions to change my way of thinking. Instead of using christmas lights to string around a track, I substituted them with tiki torches. When trying to figure out how to make this user friendly for a coach and an athlete, I chose to Eliminate the coach, and gear it towards the athlete alone. I also combined the idea of having motion sensors to detect 1 runner, with a tracking beacon that multiple runners could wear, allowing multiple data points to be recorded. 

Designing my final project solution, i was able to think from different angles by using the SCAMPER questions. I think that i will definitely use these in the future when tackling a new project.