April 2015 – Fyp in progress…

The very first idea, honestly

So, when I heard of FYP, the very first thing that popped out in my mind was actually to create a product to help the poor. What I imagine as the poor are those children in Africa or Indonesia or any other developing countries where they do not have access to clean water, basic amenities, shelter, electricity, healthcare, education, et c. Because my life-long dream is to help them by creating useful products or by monetary means.

But there are some considerations, as to why I did not immediately jump on this topic. First, is the timeline. 1 year might not be enough to do complete research to come up with a good product. Yes, it is possible but maybe not in terms of field research, to actually experience living in those condition. Since I am actually quite interested in the water problem, it is quite difficult to come up with another innovative idea. There are a lot of good and cheap products already in the ‘market’. Chances to make a better one with cheaper price is actually quite slim. Next thing, when I deal with water problem, I need the expertise of a chemist or biologist who can give me a real insight or help me in the experiment to produce a solid proof that the product can actually work out well / usable. I myself need to understand all the chemical process too.

But then I talked to my senior and she said this idea is more like you and maybe you should consider this topic, if water is not possible then you should look on other aspects. And so I created a simple mind-map with the limited current knowledge that I know.

To see mind-map, click first ideation.

Other possibilities to look for: designing for refugee, children in orphanage.

Useful links on the existing products:

Life Straw, Q-drum, Keston’s shoes, The drinkable book

The Idea of Amplifying

From the Trobla Speaker, come the idea of amplifying. What can be amplified (to create a product)?

1. wind : from natural wind to a fan?

2. sound : headphone (because previously had designed a simple headphone)

3. (open for discussion) Now, what are the issues with headphone? What is so special if I were to create a headphone?

a. Listening to loud music continuously may cause hearing loss.

To design a headphone that minimises the possibility of hearing loss from listening to music using headphone.

reading:

Key points: –The MRC Institute of Hearing Research says that one in six adults has enough hearing loss to cause problems in social situations. The World Health Organisation says that the single biggest cause of preventable hearing loss in loud music. – get good-quality headphones, as cheap ones don’t transmit the bass well. – Loud noises cause hearing loss by damaging the stereocilia: tiny hairs that sit on the top of hair cells in the inner ear. Noise makes them vibrate – changing the voltage in the hair cells – which then sends chemical messages through nerves to the brain. Battering your stereocilia will damage your hearing. b. People often become ignorant when they put their headphone on, and become oblivious to the surrounding. Maybe not in Singapore, but in Indonesia, a lot of road accident happened because pedestrians do this.

To design a headphone which help people to be aware of their surrounding yet at the same the music they are listening to is not disturbed by outside noise.

Next, what are the issues with fan? What is so special if I were to create a fan?

a. Noisy ( It should have been solved before. Should check Dyson products)

b. Uses electricity (maybe can use solar panel, since we use fan / air con on sunny days most of the time)

Self Assembling Table

“Wood-Skin makes wooden panels that bend into virtually any polygonal shape. The Self-Assembly Lab makes textiles that can be sewn or “programmed” with a sort of muscle memory. Put the two together, and the result is something like their new table. It’s a jointed wood skeleton, connected by fabric muscles. Out of the box, the muscles pull the flat skeleton into shape. And once it pops into table form, the skeleton is arranged in a self-supporting geometry. The fabric has done its job and the payload falls to the wood.”

Hard Look Soft

Interesting example of playing with materials.

To still save the Earth

Saving the Earth by saving water to extinguish fire.

Again, the idea of saving the environment kind of interest me.

This idea may be an alternative although I still prefer the previous ideation post.

Cheers for the first inspiration

“”We like to work with wood, so we set ourselves the challenge of creating an amplifier that doesn’t require a single electronic component.”

“The feeling of wood in your hands connects you back to nature, where this wood was sourced. The design and function make Trobla an object of desire in sight and sound.”

From electrical to non-electrical, and the purpose is to create a product that is as environmentally friendly as possible. Best if it is 100% bio-degradable.